Fallen Bell (Rovereto)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Maria Dolens Fallen Bell

The Campana dei Caduti Maria Dolens (Eng. Maria Dolens Fallen Bell ) or just Campana dei Caduti is a memorial in the northern Italian city of Rovereto in the province of Trento . It is located southeast of the old town on a promontory called Miravalle (German valley view). The Maria Dolens bell forms the central point of the memorial.

history

The bell of the fallen is part of a culture of remembrance that found expression in several ways in Rovereto as the former front-line town of the First World War, together with the War Museum and the Castel Dante ossuary, also built in the post-war period of the 1920s and 1930s .

The bell was created on the initiative of the Rovereto priest Don Antonio Rossaro, whose name is closely associated with the bell. When it was cast in 1924, cannon barrels were also used that had been donated for this purpose by the former war nations. It was re-cast twice, in 1939 and 1964, and enlarged each time. Today it is the fifth largest ringing bell in the world. and every evening reminds of the dead of all wars with its hundred chimes and at the same time sends out their message of peace.

From 1925 to 1961 it stood on the Malipiero tower of Rovereto Castle . A separate memorial for the third bell was built in 1965 just above the Castel Dante ossuary, where it is still located today. The memorial is managed by a private foundation ( Fondazione Opera Campana dei Caduti ) belonging to 93 countries.

The first bell

The first bell was cast in Trento on October 30, 1924 and consecrated in the presence of Queen Margherte of Italy in the presence of Queen Margherte of Italy on May 24, 1925 on the tenth anniversary of the Italian entry into the war in the name of Maria Dolens . It had a weight of 11,000 kg and was 258 cm in height and 255 cm in diameter, the clapper weighed 600 kg.

The sculptor Stefano Zuech , who comes from the Non Valley , took on the artistic design of the bell shape . The thread reliefs on the outer wall comprised 4 groups of figures, which were composed of 32 60 cm high figures and dealt with the subjects of farewell, fight, death and victory. The mold of the first bell is now on display in the Bell Hall of the War Museum in Rovereto.

On October 4, 1925, it rang in the presence of the Italian King Victor Emanuel III. for the first time from the Malipiero castle tower, on which a wooden frame had been specially erected. Already at the inauguration one noticed its poor sound quality and its initiator Don Rossaro was already thinking about having a new bell cast. However, this only happened 14 years later. The main reason for this was the fact that the old wooden framework was also in disrepair and had to be replaced. On July 21, 1937, the first bell struck for the last time, and in March 1938 it was finally dismantled and crushed.

The second bell

For the casting of the second bell, in which the crushed parts of the first bell were also recycled, the same two attempts were necessary, since the mold broke apart during the first attempt in October 1938. The second attempt was successfully completed on June 13, 1939 in a foundry in Verona . The second bell had a weight of 16,280 kg, a height and a diameter of 300 cm.

The artistic design was again the responsibility of the sculptor Stefano Zuech, who added additional thread reliefs due to the now larger bell, including another 14 figures with motifs about the devastation and destruction left by the war.

Because of the Second World War , which broke out in September 1939 , Don Rossaro hesitated whether it was even appropriate to inaugurate the bell. It was only consecrated in Rovereto on May 26, 1940, a few days before the Italian entry into the war on June 10, in the presence of the Italian Prince Filiberto di Savoia-Genova. Due to the restrictions imposed by the war - in particular there was a lack of the necessary building material for the completion of the reinforced concrete foundation and the new steel frame - the bell could only be hung again on May 5, 1944. However, it did not ring again until after the end of the war on May 20, 1945. Because of the not yet installed electric motor that set the swivel mechanism in motion, it had to be made to vibrate by 15 men. The electric motor was put into operation in March 1946, whereupon the ceremonial inauguration of the second bell took place on April 20, 1946 and normal operation could then be resumed.

With the death of Antonio Rossaro in January 1952, a successor was necessary to manage the bell. The Capuchin Father Eusebio Jori, who was in charge of this, set about working out a new overall concept in which the bell was to be set up at a new location. This concept initially remained in the drawer and was only brought out again in 1960, when a crack on the bell that had been repaired five years earlier broke open again and it was decided to cast the bell a second time and move it to a different location. The decision that the bell should not return to the castle divided public opinion. In particular, the management of the War Museum, who feared a decline in visitors, resisted this decision, which led to a legal dispute between the two institutions that went through all instances and was only ended in 1983. The second bell struck for the last time on August 31, 1960, and on May 19, 1961 it was dismantled and taken to the foundry in Reggio Emilia . The Lions Club had previously agreed to pay for the third cast.

The third bell

The third bell on its way to the new Miravalle site in November 1965

The third bell was cast on October 1st, 1964 in the Capanni bell foundry in Reggio Emilia. Compared to its predecessors, it increased again in weight and volume. It now has a total weight of 22,639 kg and has a height of 336 cm and a diameter of 321 cm. The clapper still has a weight of 600 kg. The strike note is B.

This time no major changes were made to the bell carvings, so that it only differs slightly from its predecessor. On February 26, 1965, the bell had cooled down and was released from its mold. In October of the same year it was handed over to the newly established foundation and brought to Rome , where it was held on October 31, 1965 in St.Peter's Square by Pope Paul VI. was consecrated. On November 6, 1965, the bell reached its new location on the Miravalle, where it still stands today, and on April 10, 1966 (Easter Sunday) it struck for the first time from there.

The memorial remained a temporary solution for a long time, also due to the smoldering legal dispute, but in the 1970s it was able to record up to 100,000 visitors. In the 1980s, the foundation's goals were realigned and modernized. If the original idea of ​​the bell was to remember the fallen of the First World War, this at the end of the Second World War was extended to all wars and all victims. The realignment, on the other hand, was not only intended to remember the dead, but also to exhort peace. From 2002 to 2008 the memorial was rebuilt, the existing buildings enlarged, an auditorium was built that can also be used for exhibitions, the archive was restored and a library was set up. Above all, however, the outside area of ​​the bell was completely redesigned and two multi-level roofed stands were built in the form of an amphitheater , in the middle of which, slightly offset to the edge of the hill, the bell of the fallen is now located.

photos

  • Bust of Don Antonio Rossaro in the memorial
  • The bell with the stands in the background
  • The first bell when it moved to Rovereto in 1925
  • Access to the grandstand area and the bell

literature

  • Mauro Lando (Ed.): La campana della discordia. In: Letture Trentine e Altoatesine, N. 31/32 June 1983. Rovereto l'altra città. Panorama, Trento 1983.
  • Antonio Rossaro: La campana dei caduti. Ciarocca, Milan 1952.
  • Renato Trinco, Maurizio Scudiero: La Campana dei Caduti: Maria Dolens. Cento rintocchi per la pace. La Grafica, Mori 2000.
  • Armando Vadagnini: Maria Dolens un simbolo di pace. 2003-2013: una Campana che parla al mondo. Egon, Rovereto 2013.

Web links

Commons : Campana dei Caduti  - collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ↑ Renato Trinco, Maurizio Scudiero: La Campana dei Caduti Maria Dolens. Cento rintocchi per la pace , La Grafica, Mori 2000 pp. 10-11
  2. ↑ After the Tokinosumika Bell in Gotemba (Japan) (36,000 kg), the Millennium Bell in Newport (Kentucky) (33,000 kg), the great bell of the Cathedral of the Redemption of the People in Bucharest (25,190 kg), and the St. Peter's Bell in Cologne Cathedral (24,000 kg).
  3. ↑ Tasks and facilities of the foundation in Italian , accessed on March 16, 2017.
  4. ↑ Renato Trinco, Maurizio Scudiero: La Campana dei Caduti Maria Dolens. Cento rintocchi per la pace. Pp. 15-18.
  5. ↑ Renato Trinco, Maurizio Scudiero: La Campana dei Caduti Maria Dolens. Cento rintocchi per la pace , pp. 46-59.
  6. ↑ Renato Trinco, Maurizio Scudiero: La Campana dei Caduti Maria Dolens. Cento rintocchi per la pace. Pp. 68-70.
  7. ↑ Renato Trinco, Maurizio Scudiero: La Campana dei Caduti Maria Dolens. Cento rintocchi per la pace. Pp. 90-104.
  8. ↑ Renato Trinco, Maurizio Scudiero: La Campana dei Caduti Maria Dolens. Cento rintocchi per la pace. Pp. 107-117.
  9. ↑ Mauro Lando (Ed.): La campana della discordia. In: Letture Trentine e Altoatesine, N. 31/32 June 1983 Rovereto l'altra città. Panorama, Trento, 1983, pp. 236-239.
  10. ↑ Renato Trinco, Maurizio Scudiero: La Campana dei Caduti Maria Dolens. Cento rintocchi per la pace. Pp. 129-136.
  11. ↑ Armando Vadagnini: Maria Dolens un simbolo di pace. 2003-2013: una Campana che parla al mondo. Egon, Rovereto 2013, pp. 9-12.

Coordinates: 45 ° 52 ′ 26.1 ″  N , 11 ° 2 ′ 21.1 ″  E