Utrecht's Karyatides

Since 1837 they stand tall in front of one of Holland's first retail shops and overlook the Grand Canal of the city's centre.

Their surrection was a little troublesome and Wikipedia writes the following about that: "Winkel van Sinkel is a striking building standing by the Oudegracht with its façade featuring four giant cast-iron statues which were fabricated in England, as nowhere else had the technology at the start of the 19th century to produce them. They were so large that they had to be transported to the store by water but unfortunately they were so heavy that the crane off-loading them from the boat collapsed under their weight, earning the statues the nicknames "these fallen English women" and "the English whores."