Bell-ieve in the Power of the Bells
Fran Glaría | Traveling Steps
Trish Feaster | The Travelphile
When we stroll through the old quarters of Europe, one of the most charming sounds that fill the air is the constant bell ringing. They give us the time as well and remind us to go to mass. We have seen bells in churches, and perhaps, one might tend to think that they are just a Catholic symbol, but they are not. Bells are present in many religions and cultures.
As far as we know, bells were used by the ancient Egyptians to “wake up” the crops. Some studies assert that boats carrying bells sailed down the Nile river at the beginning of the spring, letting the farmers know that the planting season had started.
In Roman times, the pythoness (a priestess at Delphi of the god Apollo) would ring a bell when she predicted a special catastrophe at the Oracle. There is also evidence that some Roman baths would announce that they were open to the public by ringing big bells.
The city limits of many medieval towns were marked by the sound of the church's bell. As far as the bells were heard, was as far as the city went.
In China, the use of bells dates back to the Bronze Age. The Marquis Yi of Zeng was buried in a four-chambered tomb around 433 BC along with his most prized possessions, including 64 bronze bianzhong bells, which not only indicated his wealth and status but also that and other Asian countries, bells have been used throughout the centuries as meditation aids, a means of communication, as musical instruments, signals, time keepers, and alarms in the Buddhist and Taoist traditions. According to one historical record:
"Bells are the leading musical instruments made of metal. The peals of big ones can be heard five kilometers away and the strokes of small ones can reach places half a kilometer off. When a monarch held court or an official leaves his office, a hell is struck to call together their subordinates. A bell is struck at a feast to accompany the singing of songs. A bell is struck at a Buddhist or Taoist temple to draw the devotion of worshippers and the awe of ghosts and gods."
The bianzhong bells buried with China’s Marquis Yi of Zeng likely required a “bell orchestra” of five musicians to play them.
Image | Gary Todd, Wikimedia Commons
When you walk into a Buddhist Pagoda and you look in the ceiling, you will find many little golden bells wafted by the wind. It is the sound of the Divine voice. The vibration of the bells or the Tibetan bowls have healing powers.
We find an exception in Islam. According to the Coran, the soul of a good person jumps from flower to flower like a bee. The buzz of a bell ringing, will disorient the soul on its way to heaven. This is why the muezzin (crier) calls to service from the minaret using his voice, rather than ringing a bell.
Christianity started using bells around the sixth century, but they weren’t widely used until the turn of the first millennium. In Spain, bell ringing became mandatory in the 1500s, so let’s look back in history to learn why.
You have to remember that in 1492, the Moors were expelled from the Iberian Peninsula by the SpanishCatholic Kings. The Moors left behind a magnificent heritage and most of their religious Muslim constructions were converted into Christian temples. The kings turned the minarets into bell towers, but they served the same purpose, a call to prayer.
Bells have been around for a long while and we find them in most of the cultures around the world. In Europe, it’s easy to become accustomed to the melodies of bells ringing throughout the day, and it’s easy to discover their ap-peal (pun intended) wherever you might be in your own hometowns and in your travels.
Here’s a look at some bells you might have heard (or at least heard of) from around the world:
The Giralda Tower and Its Bells (Seville, Spain)
A view of Seville’s Giralda Tower and some of its bells, as seen from the rooftop of the city’s cathedral.
Image | Trish Feaster
What is now known as the Giralda Tower (or the bell tower for the Cathedral of Santa María de la Sede) was originally built as a minaret for the Great Mosque of Seville in what was then al-Andalus, the immense Moorish-controlled portion of the Iberian Peninsula. Seville was taken by Christians in 1248 during the Reconquista, but it wasn’t until the 1300s that is was converted into a bell tower.
In the 1500s, after the expulsion of the Moors from the peninsula, the height of the tower was increased to 104m (342 ft) and capped with Renaissance-style finishings. It is taller than the 96m (316 ft) tower known now as Elizabeth Tower (formerly the Clock Tower), which house’s the bell Big Ben in London.
In the 16th-century, one of the Giralda Tower’s 24 bells was punished for killing a man when it fell. Its punishment: to be hung upside down for a year and whipped 22 times.
Interestingly, in 1967, a smaller replica of this tower was dedicated in Seville’s Sister City—Kansas City, Kansas—on Country Club Plaza. It originally housed a carillon of 600 bells but no one knows if they still work or if they’re even still there!
Big Ben (London, England, UK)
The Palace of Westminster’s Elizabeth Tower—the home of the bell known as Big Ben
Image | Trish Feaster
Most people think of London’s most iconic building as Big Ben, but that’s actually just the tower housing the bell named Big Ben. Completed in 1859 and built as part of the reconstruction of Parliament’s Palace of Westminster after it was destroyed by fire in 1834, the tower is a cultural emblem of the United Kingdom and stands as a symbol of democracy. It was most often called the Clock Tower and, for a brief while during the reign of Queen Victoria, St. Stephen’s Tower. In 2012, when it was renamed Elizabeth Tower to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
Big Ben itself is not the only bell in the tower. It has four other companions, but certainly The Great Bell, as it’s also known, is the largest at 13 tons (13,760 kg) and the most famous of them all. It’s debated whether its moniker is derived from Sir Benjamin Hall, the First Commissioner of Works who oversaw the installation of the bell, or from the 19th-century heavyweight boxer Ben Caunt—both of them were nicknamed—you guessed it—Big Ben.
The bell originally chimed on July 11, 1859, and there were many with whom it did not resonate well. A Times reported said Big Ben was “like a potent poison, the vibration penetrates every vein in the body; it strikes every nerve, it attacks and tries every fibre in the muscle, it makes your bones rattle and your marrow creep."
Its tones were first broadcast by the BBC and heard beyond its tonal reach on December 31, 1923 with seemingly much greater celebration than the first time it rang across London. It stopped ringing several times including during both World Wars, for repairs, and the death of Winston Churchill. In 2017, Big Ben and its bell friends were silenced for a massive restoration project of the entire clock tower. It was recently announced that the clock mechanism will be restored towards the end of 2021 and that Big Ben will ring once again early in 2022.
• The Liberty Bell (Philadelphia, USA)
The Liberty Bell, housed in Philadelphila’s Liberty Bell Center
Image | Trish Feaster, The Travelphile
Commissioned in 1752 by the Pennsylvania Assembly and used in tower of the Pennsylvania State House (now known as Independence Hall) for more than 90 years before it developed its first fissure, it is probably the most famous broken bell in the world. Abolitionists fighting to end slavery bestowed the bell with its current name, taking inspiration from its inscription, which is a quotation from the Bible regarding the “Jubilee” instructions to the Israelites to redistribute lands and properties and to give slaves their freedom every 50 years. The inscription reads: “"Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants thereof."
• Tsar Bell (Moscow, Russia)
Tsar Bell, Moscow
Image | Валерий Дед, Wikimedia Commons
Considered the largest bell in the world, it is on display at the Kremlin, weighs over 200 tons, has never been suspended or rung, has never been in working order, and is actually the third Tsar Bell. The first, much smaller bell crashed to the ground when the bell tower caught fire in the mid-1600s. The second one, made from fragments of the original, was also destroyed in a fire in 1701. Commissioned by Empress Ana and molded in 1735, the third bell was irreparably damaged during a fire two years later. It remained in its casting pit for 99 years until it was finally raised and put on display on stone pedestal along with its broken slab.
• New York Stock Exchange Bell (New York City, USA)
Bells were first used at the Stock Exchange in the 1870s to mark the opening and closing of the daily trading sessions. The original bell was a Chinese gong. In 1903, when the NYSE moved to its current location in Wall street, the gong was replaced by the brass bell we know. In fact, there are four such bells that cover the massive main trading floor and three other distinct areas of the space, operated synchronously and electronically.
• The Bells of Notre Dame (Paris, FRANCE)
Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris
Image | Leif Linding, Pexels
Thanks, in large part, to the magnificent book written by Victor Hugo in 1831, Notre Dame de Paris (or as we many may know it, The Hunchback of Notre Dame), the cloches of Paris’s great cathedral are known throughout the world. Currently, there are 10 bells (eight in the north tower for “everyday” usage, two “drones” in the south tower), all of which are named for various saints and notable people from the Bible and the life of the Catholic Church.
Most of the originals were looted and melted to form cannonballs during the French Revolution. Replacements were created in the mid- to late 1800s, but those were eventually damaged or fell greatly out of tune. In 2013, for the 850th anniversary of the consecration of the cathedral, eight new bells with christened for use .
The oldest bell, nicknamed “Emmanuel” (“God is with us”), is housed in the the cathedral’s south tower (closest to the River Seine). It was cast in 1681 and completed in 1686 at the request of King Louis XIV. At 13,000 kg or about 14.3 tons, it is the largest of Notre Dame’s bells and drones in the tone of F#. It has only rung on major religious occasions such as Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, but it has also been used to mark the end of both World Wars, the death of Pope John Paul II in 2005 (ringing 85 times for each of the years of his life) and of former President Jacques Chirac in 2019. It also droned its tone on the one-year anniversary of the fire that destroyed the steeple, roof, and ten minor bells of the iconic gothic cathedral on April 15, 2019.
The Bell and the Two Moors of St. Mark’s Clocktower (Venice, Italy)
Tour guides Jody Van Englesdorp, Elisabetta Morelli, and Trish Feaster atop the terrace of the Torre dell’Orologio with the Due Mori and St. Mark’s Campanile in the background.
Image | Trish Feaster
Inaugurated in 1497 (five years after Columbus sailed the ocean blue), the astronomical clocktower known as the Torre dell’Orologio graces the northeastern portion of Venice’s Piazza San Marco (St. Mark’s Square). Father and son duo duo Gian Paolo and Gian Carlo Rainieri designed and installed the complex clock mechanism that not only marks moon phases, the position of the sun in the zodiac, relative positions of five planets, and time of day but controls the striking of the bronze bell created by Simone Camponato.
While not the only bell on the square (St. Mark’s campanile 200 ft to the south houses five of them), the one in the clocktower is the one that is rung in a unique way. Two bronze statues of shepherds nicknamed the Due Mori (the Two Moors) strike the bell alternately with their bronze hammers, both making one stroke for each of the hours they are marking.
The “older” shepherd on the right (as seen from the piazza) hammers first (roughly two minutes before the hour), as he is wise and anticipates what’s to come. The younger one on the left plays catch-up and follows his elder’s lead, marking the time two minutes after the hour.
Leading up to the midday and midnight bellringing, viewers and listeners are treated to a peal of 132 “meridian” strokes made by two supplementary hammers placed on the circumference of the bell. The 132 rings correspond to the total number of strokes made by the shepherds in the previous 11 hours (it’s fun to do the math).
Visitors to Venice can book advanced tickets via the Correr Musuem (on the west side of the piazza) to take a guided tour of the famous clocktower and get an intimate and informative look at the inner workings of the clockwork system, as well as explore the terrace to get up-close-and personal view of the bell and the Two Moors.
•Taco Bell (Downey, USA)
A Taco Bell in Japan
Image | Aleksandar Pasaric, Pexels
OK, maybe it is not a historical bell, but we all know it! This Mexican food-inspired fast food company was founded by Glen Bell in 1962 in Downey, California. He had originally owned a hot dog stand in San Bernardino in the 50s. Seeing the long lines at the Mexican restaurant across the way, he eventually learned from the restaurant owners how to make some of their recipes for his own taco stand. Ten years later, he opened his first Taco Bell.
While not an authentic rendition of the cuisine of Mexico, Taco Bell’s menu has evolved greatly over the past six decades and its popularity has rung true (pun intended) with many across the globe. There are now more than 7000 Taco Bell restaurants in about 40 countries. Yo quiero Taco Bell, as one famous chihuahua used to say.
And to finish up with the real thing, take a moment to watch this visit of the tower bell in Artajona (Navarra, Spain) by Fran Glaría:
