The oldest graffiti in the city of Aarschot?

The Orleans Tower is a place where illegal graffiti has free rein. You will probably find the oldest and most sustainable graffiti in the city here. Hardly any iron sandstone does not bear the scratched initials of a couple in love. Modest too: not too big and not ostentatiously colored. We found one from 1977. Most graffiti probably survived the tower's last restoration campaign in the 1990s. In itself, this is a fascinating relic from the time when there were no graffiteurs with spray cans to scatter narcissistic signatures around. Is there anything more romantic than love set in stone? But this idyll is cruelly marred by colorfully sprayed paint of a size in which the ego of the graffiteur is in inverse proportion to his artistic abilities. The only figurative element here is a 'bruna sheep' on the wooden fence. Nice is the phrase "sic transit gloria civitas". This is a variant of the well-known "sic transit gloria mundi". This Latin pronunciation means: This is how worldly greatness perishes. In this case, it means "so goes what was once the fame of the city [Aarschot]". It seems to us a clear message from a melancholy Aarschottenaar to the administration of the city about the deplorable state of this monument. A decade ago (2012) there was a master plan to revalue the tower and its surroundings. In 2015, the then mayor gave hope that work would be done quickly: "The works can start at the beginning of 2016. We rely on police checks and social control about the rubbish and graffiti. Once the former view has been restored, the tower must also become an attraction of the city again and there is more social control anyway.' In 2021, the file was dusted off and the Aarschottenaar got an insight into the possible approach.

Jan Rymenams