Mermaid/ merman statues in other countries

[spottedcatfish]

Ok So we all know, or should know, of the Copenhagen Mermaid (i.e Hans Christsian Andersen's little mermaid) statue in Copenhagen, Denmark. So now I'd like to introduce you to the Warsaw, Poland mermaid statue: Syrenka.

Her story can be found here: http://www.inyourpocket.com/poland/warsaw/The-story-of-Syrenka-The-Symbol-of-Warsaw_71466f

Do you know of any other statues in other countries that feature Mer or other water related cultural icons? Please share below! thanks.

[Elle]

Also in Copenhagen, Denmark.....The Genetically Modified Little Mermaid. who just down the way from the original Little Mermaid.
She's a bit creepy tho :)

Honestly there are mermaid statues all over. There is one in Mexico with a mermaid and merman reaching for each other. And there is one in Indian that sits in....basically a large puddle. But there is some local story behind it

[spottedcatfish]

Ooh that's a weird sculpture. But I also found the"well endowed little mermaid sculpture"


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5gocErMqns&feature=relmfu

I have to say, she has a really nice body.

[Joy&RaptorsUnrestrained!]

If you count fountains, there's actually quite a few of them, a number of which are quite famous... the tritons of the Trevi Fountain in Rome, for instance.

[Mermaid Momo]

I think there's one underwater near Greece I believe it's a favorite spot for divers

[spottedcatfish]

If you count fountains, there's actually quite a few of them, a number of which are quite famous... the tritons of the Trevi Fountain in Rome, for instance.

I've actually seen that fountain in person at nighttime when it was all lit-up!! It's very beautiful!

[Mermaid Fenicia]

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This is a mermaid in the Efteling in the Netherlands ;)

[Lucinda]

I found this absolutely amazingly beautiful statue in central Helsinki (the capital of Finland):

http://mernetwork.com/index/attachment.php?attachmentid=25934&d=1418546925

[Echidna]

The Syrenka stories are highly interesting!
Intriguing that one of them says the mermaid started out as a scary looking fellow with a dragon's tail.

The connotations between dragons/serpents and merfolk are very strong in many mythologies.

[Seraphina Suds]

I took these in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. There's a lot of sea creature themed statues on the boardwalk.

[Lucinda]

Those are fintastic! :) Great pictures!

[Mermaid Galene]

Awesome thread! There's a really cool fountain in Duluth, MN with a legged mermaid:

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It's inexplicably called "Fountain of the Wind." (Why not "Fountain of the Water?") One of these days I have to get a pic of me there in my tail.

Here's a slideshow (http://www.freemanstudio.com/selected-projects/the-fountain-of-the-wind/the-fountain-of-the-wind-gallery) with some of the sculpture details.

[Echidna]

While about every second lake here has a mermaid/naiad legend, there are only a few which have an actual statue.

The Bader Lake, a mountain lake famous for its emerald green water
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has this statue lying somewhere
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funny thing is, that the lake is private property, and both swimming and diving are forbidden, yet there are quite a few pictures of underwater in the lake. :p

[Mermaid Galene]

Wow, Echidna, how cool is that?! Wish I had an emerald lake and underwater statue!

[Echidna]

ye, I used to moan about Europe 'n all, but it has an amazing number of crystal-clear, magical lakes
(Austria, Tirol, Switzerland, Bavaria, you trip over a fairytale lake every few steps lol).

Downside is, they're all as cold as *insert naughtiest expression you can think of*.
Mountains tend to be chilly after all, even in summer, and some of the clearest lakes are actually glacier runoff.

You can find Scottish beaches which look like the Caribbean, but the only thing in the water there is seals :p

(some of these locales are probably in the mermaid swimming list thread)

[Mermaid Aika]

That is so gorgeous!

[spottedcatfish]

Lets not forget the mermaid statues at Weeki Wachee!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152719405997542&l=37c4ad2397

[Satine Mermaid]

This one in Denmark :)
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And this one in Saguenay ( Quebec)
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[Mermaid Lorelei]

I've personally seen the ones in Puerto Vallarta! I absolutely love it there and the statues are incredible!

[Merman Dan]

How about a statue of "King Neptune" in Morehead City, NC?

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4119/4905631690_9283af4b1b_z.jpg

[Mermaid Kelda]

Daydream Island, near the Great Barrier Reef:
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[Seraphina Suds]

I've personally seen the ones in Puerto Vallarta! I absolutely love it there and the statues are incredible!
Aren't they?? Some of them are very weird and have a ctuhulu feel, but I adore the one of the mermaid and merman. I should be going again in March to visit my mom so I'll look for more~

[Talia]

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This statue (a mermaid and two dolphins) is beside a beach and a harbor in a small city called Cangas de Morrazo, in Galicia, Spain.

There is no special story behind it. Here in Spain you can find mermaid imagery in some cities that are by the side, just because mermaids can be found (maybe?) in the sea.

[Mermaid Jaffa]

In Singapore, we have the MerLion.

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[Mermaid Leira]

Cool thread, perfect timing, I just got home com a trip to Bali, there was this gorgeous mermaid holding merling statue I wanted to share and wasn't sure where to post, beautiful stuff guys :) I'll upload tomorrow

[Anahita]

I was just in Solvang and they still have their little reproduction of the Copenhagen Mermaid.

To quote my mom "she has the same look on her face that I have when the ice cream runs out...."

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[Echidna]

The Pretty Lau, a famous freshwater mermaid/waterspirit, with the Blue Pot, the always deep blue river spring near Ulm, in the background.

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She was described as a very beautiful maiden with pale white skin, ankle-length black hair, and large blue eyes.
She had no tail, only webbing between her fingers and toes (maybe because she was a halfbreed, her mother was human), and was banished into the spring because she never laughed.

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

This is our local mermaid statue.

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. . . despite being a place that is both heavily maritime based -and- has a lot of public art, there is an odd lack of mermaid statues. I think this is the only one in the state.

[Echidna]

Found while looking for islets in lakes and rivers:

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Statue of the nixe Isa, who was said to live under a large boulder near Jochenstein in the Danube river, luring in boaters with her song.

[Mermaid Galene]

Mermaid and swan - a winning combination!

[Echidna]

ah yes, swan maidens are to Germany what selkies are to Scotland!

Particularly Bavaria, as the last king was obsessed with swans.
A dozen towns and facilities with "swan" in their name, two castles (old and new swanstone), and of course many swan lakes :D

Swan maidens were regarded as gentle, so maybe it's a pointer Isa sang beautifully, but didn't devour the sailors she attracted.
It's the mers with scales and fangs you have to watch out for ;)

[Sherielle]

http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15/04/06/c2b1b5e6b61319f9ea6ba0ff6d8a7705.jpgmermaids on a cruise ship.

[AptaMer]

ah yes, swan maidens are to Germany what selkies are to Scotland!

Particularly Bavaria, as the last king was obsessed with swans.
A dozen towns and facilities with "swan" in their name, two castles (old and new swanstone), and of course many swan lakes :D


Also Ludwig II was born in Schloss Nymphenburg, which really was named after nymphs.

The castle had an artificial lake and several ponds on its grounds, and a canal running through them, with an artificial waterfall. There was a royal bathing house (Badenburg) on the lake, and Ludwig II became an excellent swimmer from an early age. A real water baby!

[Echidna]

Also Ludwig II was born in Schloss Nymphenburg, which really was named after nymphs.

The castle had an artificial lake and several ponds on its grounds, and a canal runnin through them, with an artificial waterfall. There was a royal bathing house (Badenburg) on the lake, and Ludwig II became an excellent swimmer from an early age. A real water baby!

True, true.
He was said to cross the alpine lake below his castle every morning (can only have been during the warm months though, when I visited there 2 weeks ago, it was completely frozen lol), so he must have been an excellent swimmer.
Which casts further doubt on the idea he drowned by accident, together with his psychotherapist aka jailor.

(sorry off-topic)

[AptaMer]

True, true.
He was said to cross the alpine lake below his castle every morning (can only have been during the warm months though, when I visited there 2 weeks ago, it was completely frozen lol), so he must have been an excellent swimmer.
Which casts further doubt on the idea he drowned by accident, together with his psychotherapist aka jailor.


(sorry off-topic again)

Yes people have always said his death and the Bavarian government's explanation for it was suspicious.

http://schwangau.de/his-mysterious-death-646.html

It wasn't the Nixen that got him, it wasn't he himself, just a few years ago yet more evidence surfaced that he had been shot, not drowned like the government claimed at the time.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/fresh-doubt-about-suicide-theory-was-mad-king-ludwig-murdered-a-515924.html

Royals who become a liability unfortunately, tend to have artificially shortened lifespans.

BTW- do those lakes and streams in the mountains ever warm up? I remember trying to wade in a pond & creek in the Alps foothills in southern Bavaria in September one year, after they'd had all summer to warm up- and my feet got numb.

[Echidna]

lala- offtopicing

It's a sad story, especially considering how much money Bavaria makes with tourists from all over the world.
The parking lot alone would have returned what Ludwig spent with his building :p

I think he was a dreamer, feeling close to nature and its spirits.
(Which he obviouly couldn't admit openly in a catholic country.)




BTW- do those lakes and streams in the mountains ever warm up? I remember trying to wade in a pond & creek in the Alps foothills in southern Bavaria in September one year, after they'd had all summer to warm up- and my feet got numb.

Warm-up is relative :lol:
I visited about a dozen foothills lakes two weeks ago, and they looked like this

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We have a picture of me stumbling through massive piles of snow at the Alp Lake's shores. So much for getting mermaid shots there LOL.

This was in the middle of last summer, which was exceptionally warm:

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You can guess from my attire how warm it was :D

I jumped in anyway, proof
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No one else wanted to do shots in costume though, there were all like "no effing way without my dry suit"


The lakes normally range from 12° to 19°C during spring and summer, and rapidly cool again after August.

[AptaMer]

The lakes normally range from 12° to 19°C during spring and summer, and rapidly cool again after August.

Aaack. I do have to admire your stamina. Even the lakes here in the Toronto area warm up better than that! I've been waiting until the lakes get up over 22° before going in in recent summers.

[Mermaid Olivia!]

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We have a restaurant named Hemmingway's inside the huge flagship Bass Pro Store here in Missouri, and the whole buffet area is themed with mermaids! ;) This is the huge centerpiece- I love it!
I'm going to Disney World this summer, and I have heard that the fountain from Splash is somewhere at Hollywood Studios! I've been to Disney so many times but never seen it anywhere- does anyone know exactly where its at? I want to be sure to get a picture of me in front of it!

[AptaMer]

If you should go to the Disney Studios attraction in Orlando, Florida, they have the mermaid fountain on display that Madison had installed in the bedroom in the movie Splash, or at least, they used to.

Here's a photo I got off the internet.
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[Green Tea Mermaid]

The Splash statue is still there. Just ask a cast member they should be able to help you find it. This is me there last January.

[Mermaid Olivia!]

Yay!!! So glad its still there!

[Echidna]

This is a typical statue of Baltic Sea countries which were used on ships

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Blond, blue-eyed, topless mermaid trope I guess.

Note; if you look closely, she has a serpent's tail.
Quite common both for german mermaids and nixies (freshwater maids) btw.

[Echidna]

found another, this one quite creepy:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:St._Anna_(Skulptur).jpg

it's a two-tailed nixe, holding the drowned namesake of the location in her lap.

https://www.fotocommunity.de/photo/st-anna-loch-rheinfelden-alemanne71/34081375

That is the St Anna hole in the Rhine, where the 3-4m deep river suddenly drops to a depth of over 30m, creating an underwater waterfall with great force.
still, the last drowning in the hole was almost 20 years ago, so I guess all the crap humans build on lakes and rivers is far more dangerous.

[Merman Storm]

At Ventura harbor there is a statue at either side of the harbor entrance. Both are visible from harbor cove beach, where I sometimes tail-swim.

https://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/images/ca/CAVENmermaids_prov01.jpg
https://www.gannett-cdn.com/media/2017/05/30/Camarillo/Camarillo/636317657867122889-Mermaid-statue2.JPG?width=854

[Taniwha]

She doesn't have a tail but we have Pania of the reef here in New Zealand - I've always loved her story! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pania (text copy/pasted from wiki)


Pania was a beautiful maiden who lived in the sea on the east coast of the North Island (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Island) of New Zealand (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand). By daylight she swam about with creatures of her reef (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reef) world but after sunset would go to a stream that ran into the bay where the city of Napier (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napier,_New_Zealand) now exists. She would travel up the stream to an area where she could rest among the flax (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_flax) bushes. Karitoki, the very handsome son of a Māori chief (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariki), quenched his thirst every evening at the stream where Pania rested because it had the sweetest water. He was unaware she was observing him for many weeks until one night she whispered a faint spell. It carried on the wind to Karitoki who turned around to see Pania emerge from her hiding place.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a4/Pania_Of_The_Reef.jpg/220px-Pania_Of_The_Reef.jpg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pania_Of_The_Reef.jpg)

Pania of the Reef


Karitoki had never seen someone so beautiful and instantly fell in love. Pania fell in love also, and they pledged their lives to each other and were secretly married. Pania and Karitoki went to his whare (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whare) (house), but because it was dark no-one saw them enter. At sunrise, Pania prepared to leave but Karitoki tried to stop her. She explained that as a creature of the ocean, when the sirens of the sea called her each morning, she could not survive if she did not go to them. She promised to return every evening and their marriage continued on that basis.
Karitoki boasted to his friends about his beautiful wife, but no one believed him because they had never seen her. Frustrated by this, Karitoki consulted a kaumatua (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaumatua) (wise elder) in the village who believed Karitoki as he knew ocean maidens did exist. The kaumatua told Karitoki that being a sea creature, Pania would not be allowed to return to the sea if she swallowed cooked food.
That night, as Pania slept, Karitoki took a morsel of cooked food and put it in Pania's mouth. As he did so, Ruru the morepork (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morepork) (owl (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owl)) called a loud warning and Pania was startled from her sleep. Horrified that Karitoki had put her life in jeopardy, Pania fled and ran to the sea. Her people came to the surface and drew her down into the depths as Karitoki swam frantically about the ocean looking for her. He never saw her again.
When people now look deep into the water over the reef, some say they can see Pania with arms outstretched, appealing to her former lover. It is unknown whether she is imploring him to explain his treachery, or expressing her continuing love.
The sea off Napier is now protected by Moremore, the son of Pania and Karitoki. He is the kaitiaki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaitiaki) (guardian) of the area, a taniwha (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taniwha) (spirit) who often disguises himself as a shark (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark), a stingray (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stingray) or an octopus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus).

[00phantom]

She doesn't have a tail but we have Pania of the reef here in New Zealand - I've always loved her story! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pania (text copy/pasted from wiki)


Pania was a beautiful maiden who lived in the sea on the east coast of the North Island (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Island) of New Zealand (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand). By daylight she swam about with creatures of her reef (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reef) world but after sunset would go to a stream that ran into the bay where the city of Napier (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napier,_New_Zealand) now exists. She would travel up the stream to an area where she could rest among the flax (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_flax) bushes. Karitoki, the very handsome son of a Māori chief (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariki), quenched his thirst every evening at the stream where Pania rested because it had the sweetest water. He was unaware she was observing him for many weeks until one night she whispered a faint spell. It carried on the wind to Karitoki who turned around to see Pania emerge from her hiding place.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a4/Pania_Of_The_Reef.jpg/220px-Pania_Of_The_Reef.jpg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pania_Of_The_Reef.jpg)

Pania of the Reef


Karitoki had never seen someone so beautiful and instantly fell in love. Pania fell in love also, and they pledged their lives to each other and were secretly married. Pania and Karitoki went to his whare (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whare) (house), but because it was dark no-one saw them enter. At sunrise, Pania prepared to leave but Karitoki tried to stop her. She explained that as a creature of the ocean, when the sirens of the sea called her each morning, she could not survive if she did not go to them. She promised to return every evening and their marriage continued on that basis.
Karitoki boasted to his friends about his beautiful wife, but no one believed him because they had never seen her. Frustrated by this, Karitoki consulted a kaumatua (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaumatua) (wise elder) in the village who believed Karitoki as he knew ocean maidens did exist. The kaumatua told Karitoki that being a sea creature, Pania would not be allowed to return to the sea if she swallowed cooked food.
That night, as Pania slept, Karitoki took a morsel of cooked food and put it in Pania's mouth. As he did so, Ruru the morepork (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morepork) (owl (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owl)) called a loud warning and Pania was startled from her sleep. Horrified that Karitoki had put her life in jeopardy, Pania fled and ran to the sea. Her people came to the surface and drew her down into the depths as Karitoki swam frantically about the ocean looking for her. He never saw her again.
When people now look deep into the water over the reef, some say they can see Pania with arms outstretched, appealing to her former lover. It is unknown whether she is imploring him to explain his treachery, or expressing her continuing love.
The sea off Napier is now protected by Moremore, the son of Pania and Karitoki. He is the kaitiaki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaitiaki) (guardian) of the area, a taniwha (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taniwha) (spirit) who often disguises himself as a shark (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark), a stingray (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stingray) or an octopus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus).

Wow I loved that. Thank you for sharing!