Quinten Matsys

The ornate iron well standing here at the Handschoenmarkt has a remarkable origin story, and the man behind it changed his entire life for love.

Quinten Matsys was a blacksmith in 15th-century Antwerp who fell for a painter's daughter. Her father had other ideas. A blacksmith, in his view, simply wasn't a suitable match. So Matsys did something extraordinary: he taught himself to paint. To prove his skill, he added a fly to one of the father's own paintings, so lifelike that the man reached out to swat it away. When his fingers touched canvas instead of an insect, the argument was over. The blacksmith had his blessing, and the girl.

Matsys went on to become one of the most celebrated Flemish painters of his era. But before he put down his hammer for good, he forged the ironwork that crowns this well. The engravings wrap around the top, depicting scenes from the legend of Brabo and Druon Antigoon, one of Antwerp's founding myths. The well itself served the city's residents for centuries before being retired from duty in the 19th century.

The inscription says it best: love made a painter out of the blacksmith.