Graffiti from the archives

Some old photos of writings or drawings on different walls, not really worth being called murals, but still. The first one is from Donostia/San Sebastián with the lines pintar algo por lo menos ‘at least paint something’ and euskarak egiten gaitu euskaldun ‘it’s the Basque language that makes us Basque’:IMG_9848

This one is from the church in Azpeitia: Se prohibe jugar a la pelota bajo la multa de 2 pesetaspilota playing is forbidden under the penalty of 2 pesetas’:

 

IMG_9676Somewhere in the forests between Orio and Zarautz, this stencil of Lenin had been sprayed on a small building:

lenin

And in Zarautz, at a playground by Lapurdi Kalea close to the railway station, someone had written Jokin inor bezla maite izan zaitudala ‘Jokin, I’ve never loved anyone like you’_

jokin

Finally, two photos from the cathedral in Köln (Cologne). Not the Basque Contury, but still Basque graffiti, the first one saying EH [Euskal Herria] Basque Country, Baskenland, frei, free, libre, aske (‘free’ in German, Spanish and Basque) and depicting an ikurrina:

baskenland

The other one says Gora Bermio eta Lekitxo! (Euskal Herria) ‘Go Bermeo and Lekeitio! (Basque Country)’, using the nicknames for the two towns by the coast of Bizkaia:bermioetalekitxo

Whaling in Orio

Okay, this isn’t really a mural, but still something decorative on a wall:

orio

It’s the yellow dressed rowing team of Orio, and a lad trying to harpoon a whale. As you can read in Mark Kurlansky’s brilliant book A Basque History of the World, whaling was for centuries a significant business in the Basque Country. Even though the hunting has stopped, whales are still an important symbol for the region; they are depicted on the shield of many towns along the coastline and, in this case, on a wall decoration.