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The Time Snowmen Were Used As a Form of Erotic Protest
The Miracle of 1511 and the Snow Sculptures of Protest
In the year 1511 CE, the citizens of Brussels were becoming increasingly unhappy. The peasant class and lower middle classes had grown exponentially in recent years, which had caused the city to become crowded and squalid. As the regular citizens scraped by, the House of Hapsburg continued to enrich themselves. The Hapsburgs built larger and larger palaces with more elaborate decorations and adornments while adding to their large personal stockpiles of wealth and power, which now stretched across Europe. The discrepancies were becoming starker and harder to ignore. It got to the point where the average citizen, used to being lorded over by wealthy families of entitled rulers, could no longer stay quiet.
Like so many things in history, the protest that erupted in Brussels in 1511 was influenced by two seemingly innocuous things. It was cold, and their boy ruler was seemingly not home.
For six weeks, the people of Brussels had huddled inside and glowered at the grey sky as frigid temperatures and driving snow pummeled the city. It was a particularly nasty stretch of weather that was not uncommon during this time period, thanks to the Little Ice Age, which plagued Europe for many years. When the weather finally…
