Bell Tower Project

The bell tower is one of the primary vertical elements that draws the pilgrim to the church, not only by the sound of its bells but by its visual profile. Pointing upward to the heavens, it is a welcoming sign to pilgrims and tourists, parishioners and merchants alike.

The earliest towers, called campaniles, originated in Italy during the late sixth century. Typically built as detached towers, they were first plain and circular in shape, with a few round-arched openings at the top. But by the tenth century, a decorated square tower was more commonly used throughout Italy, and it is this form that has been handed down by church architects through the succeeding centuries.

Yet during the latter half of the twentieth century bell towers and then the bells themselves disappeared. Some argued that real bells were not affordable; others that they were inappropriatemerely a sign of prideful triumphalism. With hindsight, however, most Catholics can recognize instinctively that the peal of bells and the visual profile of a bell tower add to the unique appeal that Catholic churches have to announce the presence of Christ and His Church in this world.

Let us bring back the bells and their towers.

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