Bell tower

A belfry is a tower in which church bells are usually suspended, often in a belfry. It may be freestanding, attached to a building, or rise on the roof of a building, such as the crossing tower of a church.

The functions of the bell tower were and are the marking of time intervals, the indication of special social events such as church services, weddings and funerals or the warning of fire or military danger, for example. In the rural and industrial society of the 19th century, bell towers were also widespread on estates and manor houses in combination with clock chimes to indicate the time.

Almost every church tower is designed as a bell tower; however, there are also bell towers on secular buildings, such as the bell tower of the Berlin Olympic Stadium or the tower of the Schöneberger Rathaus in Berlin. In the 20th century, bell towers were also erected by secular institutions and fitted with bells. For the bell towers of the Nazi order castles Krössinsee and Sonthofen, the Apolda bell foundry Schilling supplied chimes with slogans from the fascist canon of values. The Buchenwald bell on the bell tower of the Buchenwald Memorial, in turn, is dedicated to the anti-fascist resistance and the victims of the Nazi dictatorship. When constructing bell towers, attention must always be paid to the fact that the heavy bells, which are usually suspended in the upper part of the tower, can lead to a high load on the tower construction during ringing. Because the stability of the subsoil is also decisive, bell towers in East Frisia, for example, often stand freely next to the actual church building and are designed relatively low.

In order to avoid damage to the tower, which is brought into resonance by the swinging bells, it is technically possible to install masses swinging in the opposite direction to the bell.

If the bells in the tower were also constructed for use as a musical instrument, one speaks of a glockenspiel or carillon. An example of this is the Red Tower on the market square in Halle (Saale) with its 76 bells designed for this purpose.

One of the miracle narratives about Bishop Gregory of Tours (538-594) provides a hint that bells suspended in a higher position and moved by a rope may have existed in France in the 6th century. At the beginning of the 9th century, a source mentions that the abbot Ermharius († 738) had a bell made and hung in a small tower (turricula) in the abbey of Saint-Wandrille in Normandy. After these turrets with bells at the beginning of the 8th century, the first higher bell towers were possibly built in France or Italy around the middle of the same century.

The bell towers often found free-standing next to churches in Italy are called campaniles.

The bell gable is more common in the Mediterranean region than in German-speaking countries.

Bell towers (Chinese 鐘樓 / 钟楼, pinyin zhōnglóu, Jap. shōrō) with a drum tower nearby are also found in ancient Chinese cities, as well as in Buddhist temples in China and cultures influenced by them.

Some bell towers

• Belfry - Flanders
• Espadaña - Spain
• Bell Tower (London) - England
• Stack of bells - Schleswig-Holstein
• Glockenhäusl - especially in Bohemia