GIOTTO’S BELL TOWER – FLORENCE The rotation of the Major Bell called “Campanone” – A.D. 2021
The bells of Giotto’s bell tower in Florence will not ring from 8 to 26 November 2021 to allow the rotation of the Major Bell known as Santa Reparata or Campanone, built in 1475 in honour of the saint after whom the ancient Florentine Cathedral was named. It is one of the largest active bells in Italy today, with extraordinary measures: a diameter of 2 meters and a height of 210 cm, with a thickness of 15 cm for over 5 tons of weight. It was recast in 1705, after cracks had formed.
The maintenance intervention, commissioned and technically coordinated by the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, will be performed by one of the Italian companies with greater experience in this sector, A.E.I. DI PEREGO C. & C., the company is based in the province of Milan in Pozzuolo Martesana. It will be a complex but almost invisible intervention, because it was carried out inside the belfry, apart from the days of 8, 9, 25 and 26 November when there will be a crane in the area in front of the bell tower and the monument will be closed to the public for allow the work of handling the bell.
The rotation of a quarter of the Campanone was necessary because the use has thinned the thickness of the bronze in the points where the clapper strikes. “Once the wear of 10% of the thickness has been exceeded, as in this case – explains Claudio Perego, owner of A.E.I. – we must intervene because there are many chances that the bell will break ”. This will be the last time the Campanone can be rotated, having already been turned on the other sides. […]
Giotto’s Bell Tower is equipped with a total of 12 bells of which 5, the oldest, are now disused but still arranged inside the monument, while the other 7, including the Campanone, of different eras and sizes, are functional and together they constitute the so-called Concerto. […]
In addition to the Campanone, the other 6 active bells on Giotto’s Bell Tower are those of the Misericordia, built in 1670 and recast in 1830, the Apostolic, the Annunziata, the Mater Dei, the Assumption and the Immaculate Conception, the latter merged between 1956 and 1957. The bells of Giotto’s bell tower are located at a height of 65 meters from the ground, while in ancient times they were about 70.5 meters.
Excerpt from “The bells of Giotto’s bell tower will not ring from 8 to 26 November 2021 to allow the rotation of the Major Bell called Campanone”. https://duomo.firenze.it/en/home Work of Santa Maria del Fiore Opera – Florence.
