#PrayForBrussels: Art and Tributes After the 2016 Brussels Attacks

On the morning of 22 March 2016, suicide bombers struck Brussels Airport in Zaventem and a metro train at Maelbeek station, in the city's European Quarter. Thirty-two people were killed, along with the three bombers, and more than 300 were injured. The so-called Islamic State claimed responsibility the same day. Within hours, artists, cartoonists and ordinary people around the world began sharing drawings under hashtags such as #PrayForBrussels and #JeSuisBruxelles.

This collection gathers 51 of those images, first compiled by the community site Bored Panda. They lean on Belgium's best-known symbols: the Manneken Pis fountain, the Atomium, Tintin, the black, yellow and red flag, and the country's famous self-mocking humour. Each picture below comes with a short note on what it shows and why that symbol mattered to Belgians in that week. The image above, by the French cartoonist Plantu, shows a figure in the French tricolour embracing one in Belgian colours under the dates "13 novembre… 22 mars…", linking the attack to the Paris attacks of November 2015.

What happened on 22 March 2016

At 07:58 two bombs exploded about nine seconds apart in the departure hall at Zaventem. At 09:11 a third bomb went off in a train leaving Maelbeek station, a short walk from the main European Union buildings. Sixteen victims died at each site. The attackers, Ibrahim El Bakraoui and Najim Laachraoui at the airport and Khalid El Bakraoui in the metro, died in the blasts. Two others, Mohamed Abrini and Osama Krayem, fled without detonating their bombs and were arrested on 8 April 2016.

The same cell had helped plan the Paris attacks of 13 November 2015. Four days before the bombings, police had captured Salah Abdeslam, the main surviving Paris suspect, in Brussels, and investigators believe that arrest may have rushed the group into acting. Belgium declared three days of national mourning, and at noon on 23 March crowds gathered at the Place de la Bourse for a minute's silence, then broke into applause. The square filled with flowers, candles and chalk messages, many echoing the drawings below.

Manneken Pis: the little rebel of Brussels

The small bronze boy relieving himself into a fountain basin has stood in the old town since about 1620, when sculptor Jérôme Duquesnoy the Elder made him. Today's figure is a replica placed in 1965; the original is kept in the Brussels City Museum. Locals see him as the embodiment of zwanze, the city's cheeky, self-deprecating humour, so it is no surprise that many artists answered the bombs with him.

"Pisse Love and Freedom" by Baudry. The cartoonist shows the statue, Belgian flag in hand, aiming his stream at a cowering bearded gunman below. It is a classic piece of Brussels mockery: answering fear with laughter. The joke also tells terrorists that the city's spirit will not be humbled.

"Pis & Love", shared by Instagram user majamaj0613. A clean silhouette of the statue douses a bundle of dynamite, a visual pun that many readers will know as an old legend. One of the stories told about the Manneken Pis is of a boy who saved Brussels by putting out a burning fuse in exactly this way.

#PrayForBrussels Let’s Show The World That We Are UNITED! - #16 Carry On Pissing Them Off

"J'irai pisser sur vos bombes". A soft pastel Manneken Pis wags a warning finger while his stream puts out a lit bomb. The French line translates as "I'll piss on your bombs", a defiant answer delivered in the statue's own cheeky manner.

#PrayForBrussels Let’s Show The World That We Are UNITED! - #18 Gift From Belgium

"Tiens! Cadeau de la Belgique!" In this cartoon the statue raises a middle finger and soaks a cowering black-clad bomber, saying "Here! A gift from Belgium!", with the caption "Support to our Belgian friends!". It is crude on purpose, which is why it is hidden behind a click.

A pencil drawing of a boy on the pedestal. Here the statue becomes an ordinary cartoon kid, wearing a shirt and frowning as he puts out the fuse on a stack of dynamite. Coloured pencils in the national colours lie beside the sketch, a reminder that this was drawn by hand within hours of the news.

Two souvenirs, one prayer. A keyring of the Eiffel Tower hangs beside a tiny Manneken Pis figurine, with "#Pray for Brussels" handwritten next to them. In four months, two of Europe's most visited capitals had been hit by the same network, and the pairing says it with two everyday tourist trinkets.

"Poor Manneken Pis". In this quiet sketch, the statue is reduced to a dark blue shape behind the railings of his corner niche, with smudged lines around him. Without words, it suggests a city hiding and shaken rather than laughing.

#PrayForBrussels Let’s Show The World That We Are UNITED! - #29 Belgium Way Of Life

"Les Belges pissent sur le terrorisme". A photo of the real statue is set against the black, yellow and red tricolour with a blunt slogan: "Belgians piss on terrorism". It turns the city's mascot into a national statement of refusal.

A soaking for a gunman. A small bronze statue drenches a hooded fighter holding a rifle, who stands in a splash of pink. The message is plain: the people who want to frighten Brussels deserve to be laughed at, not feared.

"Je suis Bruxelles". A loosely drawn hand, with a tear running from one fingertip, holds an outline of the statue coloured in black, yellow and red. The hashtag borrowed the "Je suis Charlie" slogan used after the January 2015 attack on the French magazine Charlie Hebdo.

#PrayForBrussels Let’s Show The World That We Are UNITED! - #34 Manneken And Jeanneke Piss On Isis

"Manneken and Jeanneke Piss on ISIS". The boy is joined here by Jeanneke Pis, his squatting "sister", a statue by Denis-Adrien Debouvrie installed in the Impasse de la Fidélité in 1987. Putting the two side by side made the message a family affair for Brussels.

#PrayForBrussels Let’s Show The World That We Are UNITED! - #36 ☮ Manneken Peace ☮

"Manneken Peace". A dark photo of the bronze boy stands in front of the Belgian flag scattered with small white hearts. There is no slogan, just the city's best-known figure wrapped in national colours and love.

#PrayForBrussels Let’s Show The World That We Are UNITED! - #40 We Are Strong!

"We Are Strong!" A small souvenir copy of the statue poses in front of a red polka-dot heart, with a line in Chinese meaning "we are incredibly strong". It shows how far the messages of support travelled in the days after the bombings.

A doodle by the Dutch artist Rob Bouwman. Shown in grey tones, the statue sprays a ticking bomb tied to an alarm clock, while a Belgian flag waves above. Bouwman's "Droedels" series often comments on the news in a few simple strokes.

#PrayForBrussels Let’s Show The World That We Are UNITED! - #48 Manneken Pis Cries

"Manneken Pis pleure, huilt, cries". In a simple line drawing dated 22/03/2016, the statue weeps instead of spraying water. The caption repeats "cries" in French, Dutch and English, a nod to a country that lives in several languages.

#PrayForBrussels Let’s Show The World That We Are UNITED! - #50 Piss#on#is

"Piss#on#is". A close photo of the real statue has the black flag used by the so-called Islamic State placed in the corner, right in the line of fire. The flag appears only as the target of the joke, not as a symbol being promoted.

#PrayForBrussels Let’s Show The World That We Are UNITED! - #51 #mannekenandjeannekepissonisis

"#mannekenandjeannekepissonisis", signed jegro. A second version of the blue Manneken and Jeanneke design, this time reading "Piss on IS". The repeated design shows how quickly such images were remixed and reshared under different hashtags.

The Atomium and other Brussels landmarks

The Atomium, built for the 1958 World's Fair, is a 102-metre steel model of nine spheres arranged like an iron crystal, magnified about 165 billion times. Designed by engineer André Waterkeyn with architects André and Jean Polak, it is the city's most popular tourist attraction and, after March 2016, one of its most drawn mourning symbols.

"Stay Strong Brussels". The Atomium is drawn in white on black above rows of candles, like a vigil. The graphic was widely used as a profile picture in the days after the attacks.

The Atomium with sad faces. Each of the nine spheres has closed, downturned eyes in this minimal line drawing. It turns a monument to scientific optimism into a family of mourners.

A wounded monument. Here the spheres drip red down the frame, under the hashtag #PrayForBrussels and the date 22.03.2016. It is one of the starker images in the collection, a reminder that the city itself felt injured.

The Atomium as a peace sign. With ink and a few lines, the artist rearranges the spheres and tubes so the structure reads as the peace symbol. It is a neat visual idea that joins the city's skyline with a universal plea.

Candles on the spheres. A small silver Atomium glows on a black background, each sphere topped by a candle flame. It mirrors the real vigils, where candles were set out in squares across Belgium.

#8 Thinking Of Those Affected In Brussels Right Now

The flag over the Grand Place, 22.3.16. A watercolour shows the Belgian flag flying above the Gothic tower of the Brussels Town Hall, under a grey, bruised sky. The Grand Place is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the heart of the old city.

Tintin and Belgian comics

Belgium is one of the homes of the comic strip. Hergé's Tintin, created in Brussels in 1929, and Edgar P. Jacobs's Blake and Mortimer are national icons, and a crying Tintin quickly became one of the defining images of the day.

"Mon Dieu…!" by Vladdo. The Colombian cartoonist Vladimir Flórez shows Tintin, tears in his eyes, reading a newspaper headlined "Explosions à Bruxelles", with his dog Snowy at his feet. The familiar reporter-hero is suddenly reading about his own city.

Tintin hides his face. In this drawing Tintin covers his eyes while Snowy sits beside him and a pool of red spreads across the ground. The young reporter who always found a way out of trouble is shown, for once, helpless.

A single tear. Only Tintin's famous quiff is coloured, in black, yellow and red, as a blue tear falls from his closed eye. The minimal style lets the hairstyle alone identify the character.

Tintin in silhouette. A black profile against orange, with a single yellow tear, became one of the most shared images of the day. Its simplicity made it easy to use as an avatar or print as a poster.

Running from the shadow, by Mork Work. Tintin sprints with a suitcase, Snowy at his heels, while the shadow behind him is a gunman. The rolling suitcase points to the travellers at Zaventem airport.

"Faith in humanity lost…". A pilot in an old propeller plane, in a style that recalls classic Belgian adventure comics, flies over a darkened Earth. The caption speaks for the despair many felt that week.

#33 Blake & Mortimer Aident La Belgique!

Blake and Mortimer help Belgium. Jacobs's British heroes, Captain Francis Blake and Professor Philip Mortimer, stand in a Brussels street beneath sweeping bands of black, yellow and red. The French title, "Blake & Mortimer aident la Belgique!", casts them as allies in a real crisis.

Flags, doves and symbols of peace

"I see humans but no humanity". A rough peace sign in Belgian colours sits on old, stained paper between two handwritten lines. The words were a common reaction online: frustration that people could plan such an attack.

"Pray #For Peace" by Marañas. A low-poly hand in shades of grey forms a V-for-peace sign against black. The geometric style was popular in 2016 digital art.

"Brussels, that's us". The word BRUSSELS is split so that "US" stands out in the flag's colours. The design said what many residents felt: the attack was on all of them, not on institutions alone.

A dove in brushstrokes. A white dove carrying an olive branch is drawn in black, yellow and red strokes, its wing curving into a heart. It recalls the peace doves shared after earlier attacks in Paris.

"Pensées pour Bruxelles et toute la Belgique". Hand-lettered words, "thoughts for Brussels and all of Belgium", hang above a small heart in falling rain. Brussels is officially bilingual, French and Dutch, and many tributes used French, the city's majority language.

A face in the national colours. The close-up of a face is split into black, yellow and red bands, with a red heart painted on one cheek. It echoes the face paint Belgian football fans wear, turned here to mourning.

A dove on blue. A white dove carries a heart in Belgian colours in its beak, set against the blue of the European flag. Maelbeek station lies beneath the EU quarter, so the European blue gives the image extra meaning.

Half mast, 22.03.16. A hand-drawn Belgian flag hangs part way down its pole. Flags on public buildings across Belgium and Europe were lowered during the three days of national mourning.

A bracket and an asterisk. In this graphic tribute, two brackets in Belgian colours frame an asterisk. Its exact meaning is not explained, but the small symbol works like a footnote to a sentence that has been cut short.

"Nous sommes unis" by hzd.works. A chain of paper-doll figures holds hands across a green field, two of them coloured in the French and Belgian flags. "We are united" was a phrase heard often in speeches that week.

Holding hands. Two hands clasp each other over a watercolour wash of black, yellow and red. The image needs no caption: comfort, given and received.

Grief, anger and everyday solidarity

"No more victims, please." A woman kneels in the rain under a large umbrella, tears falling as flowers grow at her feet. The plea in the caption was shared alongside appeals for blood donors in Brussels hospitals.

Beer and fries, by profesorgalactico. A glass of beer and a cone of fries in the national colours share a sad face. Using Belgium's most loved comfort foods kept the grief warm and recognisable.

"Tired of this", for all victims. A rainy pattern of tiny faces surrounds a cloud with an umbrella, under a hashtag that used strong language to express exhaustion at repeated attacks. Its second line asked people to pray for all victims of terrorism, not only those in Europe.

"Support each other". A weeping airliner sits under a grey sky, with the hashtag #PrayForBrussels written beneath. The plane stands for Zaventem, where the first bombs struck travellers waiting to check in.

"Et maintenant, le silence". A young woman in a jacket in the Belgian colours raises her fist under the date 22.3.16, eyes closed. The French phrase "and now, silence" points to the minute's silence the next day.

"DIY: how to be a terrorist". A line drawing shows young men with rifles standing on an assembly line, as if mass-produced. The satire takes aim at how extremist groups recruit and use vulnerable young people.

Stay strong, with love. A heart in Belgian colours framing two embracing figures was offered as a template people could personalise and download. Tools like this helped tributes spread across social media within hours.

"With love. Pray for peace." A faded photograph of a wire fence overgrown with bare branches, with a ghostly figure behind it, has a dreamlike, grieving tone. It is one of the few photographic tributes in the set.

The map. A road map of the Brussels region is spattered with red, with the city's name broken by the letters "ISIS". It is an angry image, saying in one word who claimed the attack.

After the attacks: inquiry, trial and memorials

A Belgian parliamentary inquiry, set up in April 2016, found poor coordination between security agencies, weak information-sharing and underfunding. The trial of the surviving suspects opened in December 2022. On 25 July 2023 a jury convicted six men of terrorist murder, including Abrini, Krayem and Salah Abdeslam, and the court recognised 35 victims, adding three people whose later deaths were linked to the attacks. A later official review reportedly raised the count to 36. Sentences announced in September 2023 ranged from ten years to life.

The dead are remembered by the "Memorial 22/03" in the Sonian Forest, where 32 birch trees stand for the victims, by a monument on the Rue de la Loi, by a mural of an olive tree at Maelbeek station and by a plaque at the airport. Each year on 22 March, families, survivors and officials gather at these sites.

Looking back, the drawings in this collection are a snapshot of the first hours and days: shock, anger, humour and solidarity, often in the same picture. They also show how a small country answered violence with its own symbols, a cheeky bronze boy, a steel molecule and a young reporter with a quiff.

Sources: illustrations first collected by Bored Panda, with credits to Plantu, Baudry, Vladdo, profesorgalactico, majamaj0613, Marañas, hzd.works, Mork Work, Rob Bouwman and other artists; 2016 Brussels bombings (Wikipedia); Manneken Pis (Wikipedia); Atomium (Wikipedia).

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