Bill lands for graffiti clean

REMOVING graffiti from one of the old city walls of Orihuela Castle has cost the town council €1,647. The graffiti was painted in May 2012 on part of the wall which dates back to the twelfth and fourteenth centuries. 

Heritage Councillor, Nuchi Belchí, is pleased it has been removed and urges more to be done to highlight such important historical sites, such as installing signs or fencing them off so people know their relevance.

The councillor said: “Police are investigating who painted the graffiti and when found they will have to bear the cost.

“I appeal to the public to become involved in the reporting of incidents like this and people who exercise the art of graffiti to refrain from doing it on heritage elements, many of which are declared of cultural interest.”

To remove the paint from the ancient stone was not easy. Restorer Maite Gilabert Montero used a “dry micro-projection aluminium silicate and then applied a stone consolidate to give greater strength to the original material.”