Bell gable

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Simple baroque bell gable (espadaña) above the vestibule of the Visigothic church of San Juan de Baños , Castile-León - the original building from the 7th century probably had no bell or it was hung separately.
Three-storey bell gable of the double church Panagia and Agios Charalambos in Areopoli , Peloponnese, probably added later
Bell tower of the Church of Santa María a Real in Pedrafita del Cebreiro - the bells are not hung inside the tower, but in the manner of a bell gable in the arched openings.

A bell gable ( French clocher-mur ; English bell-gable , Spanish espadaña , Catalan espadanya ) is an element of church architecture in southern Europe and in the former Spanish-Portuguese colonial empire. It is used in church buildings - similar to a roof turret - as an inexpensive replacement for a bell tower or belfry .

Modern, functionally comparable, but mostly free-standing parts of the building that were not erected above the gable are called bell carriers.

history

Ancient or early medieval forerunners of the bell gable are not known; its origin is probably only in the late 11th or early 12th century. While they are common in Romanesque architecture , they almost completely disappeared in Gothic , but experienced a revival in simple, mostly rural church buildings in the Renaissance and Baroque periods .

Dating bell gables is difficult because in many cases they were added or modernized afterwards.

function

A bell gable has arched openings in which the mostly small church bells are suspended freely. They were usually rung from the outside with long ropes; some constructions also made it possible to ring the bell from within. Some bell gables should probably also or mainly be ornamental gables.

to form

There are simple, double and multi-storey or broad bell gables - the latter are also called "bell arcades". In the north of Catalonia there are even some crenellated bell gables that are open at the top (e.g. the churches of Sant Vicenç de Vilamalla or Sant Martí d ' Empúries ). While the inner sides of the arches are mostly undecorated, the outer sides sometimes have decorations in the form of small obelisks , spheres, volutes , etc.

placement

Bell gables mostly tower above the western gable wall opposite the apse of a church ; in rare cases (e.g. in some churches in southwest France or in northern Spain) the bell gable is outside above the choir or triumphal arch between the nave and apse (e.g. Iglesia San Salvador in Tirgo ). Long bell gables are also possible (e.g. Iglesia San Martin in Briviesca or Ermita Santo Cristo de San Sebastián in Coruña del Conde ). In the baroque era, a few bell gables were integrated into the overall structure (see Pedro de Ribera ); others stand free next to the church ("bell wall" or Kodonostasion ). A few important churches even have two bell gables. The church of Sant Bartomeu in Sóller , Mallorca , received a diadem-like, functionless bell gable when the facade was redesigned in 1904 .

Geographical distribution

Typical bell gables can be found almost exclusively on churches in the northern Mediterranean area; in Central and Northern Europe they are rather rare or their form is often alienated. With the Spanish conquistadors and missionaries they also came to the Canary Islands as well as to North, Central and South America and the Philippines . The St. Johannes Nepomuk Church in Altenberge-Hansell (North Rhine-Westphalia) has one of the few bell gables outside of the distribution area described .

Examples
Borja Town Hall , Spain
Cascais City Hall , Portugal

Town halls

Bell gables are extremely rare on secular buildings (e.g. town halls); however, there are a few historical examples in Spain, Portugal, and Central and South America. The ringing of bells served here to attract attention (e.g. during fires, political meetings, public announcements, receiving guests of honor, etc.). In addition, many secular councilors found themselves in a certain competitive position with the church authorities.

Houses

In the coastal cities of Central Europe ( Flanders , Holland , Friesland , Baltic Sea region ), gables with a bell-shaped silhouette on representative urban and bourgeois buildings of the Baroque period are also referred to as "bell gables". However, they have nothing in common with the bell gables in the narrower sense.

See also

Web links

Commons : Bell Gable  - collection of images, videos, and audio files