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Spain We had a rather chilly holiday walking in south central Spain recently. Nice countryside, strong on olive trees! |
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The bell towers were spectacular but we had great difficulty trying to catch them ringing. Here is Cordoba Cathedral. What a glorious sound all those bells would have made. Because of the way they are rung, they have huge counterbalancing headstocks, difficult to see in this picture, sorry. We had great difficulty in actually catching the bells ringing anywhere (our full itinerary left little time for personal exploration!) |
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Finally success at Priego de Cordoba. The big bell there had fallen out of its headstock, alledgedly clean through the church roof, and stood (cracked but whole!) on the floor in the church looking very sorry for itself. On our last day there we actually managed to be in the square when they rang. The little bell in the top arch did go round and round and round. Clearly by electric motor. But the funniest thing was that when they stopped they were so counterbalanced that the bell remained at an angle, not hanging downwards in the normal civilised manner. If you look very carefully you can see that the small bell in the top arch is pointing unwards but up (10o'clock) - quite uncanny to our eyes but just shows how counterbalanced they are. |
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For much more information about bells all over Spain, visit the website of EL GREMI DI CAMPANERS VALENCIANS where you can find pages of information in English and also some most dramatic (if rather large and time-consuming to download) VIDEOS of bells ringing at Valencia Cathedral. |
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