Sgraffiti in Anderlecht

Rising like phoenix from the ashes, we're back after long, long winter. After approximately one week of spring, we seem to have jumped straight into summer today. People hungry for sunbeams rushed out on the streets. And so did we!

I've been wanting go see one place for some time now, and we finally did. But first things first.

Living in Anderlecht, we receive the official monthly Anderlecht newspaper: Anderlecht Contact. In the January edition I was very happy to see what's below.

Basically, for non FR/NL speakers, it's a competition. Every month they'll put a picture of some architectural detail, and people have to say what and where is it. As it's in the spirit of this blog, I promised myself to check them every month (though it seems they're getting harder!).

We didn't know the sgraffiti from the picture, but with enough googling around we managed to find the place (and by "we" I mean Chris found it, when he got sick of me nagging him). We threw the address in the Google Maps, and indeed it was the place. I'm putting a static screenshot from Google Street View just so you can see how the place looked originally (click on it to go to the map). It was horribly devastated, it's an amazing work that's been done on its restoration. It was almost impossible to see there was an artwork on these walls.

Google Map

And here it is now.

The paintings on the wall represent the four seasons and four parts of the day, all written in Dutch.

I asked people who organized the competition about any details of the building, architect, author of the paintings - but they replied that they couldn't find any information on it. It'll remain a mystery, at least until I find something...

As the weather was fantastic, we couldn't refuse ourselves a little walk around. We passed by the Plaine de Jeux Rauter that's on the corner, and which contains a playground with literally one slide in it. And nothing else... Well, I guest at least it's something.

It did seem like a very nice place anyway, and it was full of people playing around. On one side it's enclosed by a building with a mural that caught my attention.

 

Paintings contain view on Brussels (or rather it's the vision how Brussels should be), including some landmarks like Palais de Justice (first picture), Basilique, building of European Parliament, but also some typical Brussels street corners.

Altogether, a very nice little walk we had. More will surely follow - it's about time to revive this place!