Merksplas, a vagrant colony

by Nelly De Clercq

“Go on like this and you’ll end up in Merksplas “, my brother, a rebel in the sixties, heard it many times. 
It meant a trip to the reformatory … 

Yesterday we visited Merksplas – of all places – but situated in a most bucolic environment! Splendid trees, gardens and wide vistas.
And yet it had a dark side: once a colony for vagrants, where they had to work or taught to work to keep them off the streets. Vagrancy was punishable by law, only recently abolished by the EU. 
The museum presents an overview of penitentiary detention over the centuries, interesting but quite chilling. Our guide, whose father was previously an officer guard, made it more human by telling a lot of anecdotes! 
After a tasty lunch, we went for a long walk around the property, passing by the actual prisoner detention center and the center for failed asylum seekers, waiting for deportation. 
I was thinking of the men and the personal dramas behind those walls … 
We stepped inside the chapel, a stunning building with a spectacular ceiling. 
But what I found a most moving place was the vagrants cemetery, rows of little white crosses marked only with a number – totally unknown – and yet those people have existed, like us now. 
A special and interesting outing! 
Thanks to the organiser, Emile!