In Manresa, the bells of the Seu Basilica ring 23 times a week for liturgical events, according to campanologist Blai Ciurana. He programmed the chimes for the historic basilica in central Catalonia, where the bells also mark the hours and quarters day and night.
Ciurana, one of only two professional carillonneurs in Spain, said the full pattern adds up to 263 chimes a week. He was born in Fornells and lives in Cassà, and said he has a deep knowledge of Catalonia’s bells, having seen many cast at the Riudellots foundry where his mother, a bronze sculptor, often worked.
The Seu’s seven bells weigh 4,500 kilograms in total. Ciurana said the basilica is not ideal for manual bell concerts because its German-designed system is difficult to use and is intended for programmed ringing. For more on local coverage, see news.
The most frequent liturgical sound is the Angelus, which rings for two minutes at 12:01 and 21:01. Mass chimes vary by day and season, with a single bell on weekdays at 9:46, three bells on Saturdays at 9:46 and 18:46, and on Sundays at 10:45, with different festive chimes for ordinary time, Advent and Lent.
Other scheduled chimes include the Via Crucis during Lent at 17:46 on Sundays, the new arravatada chime at 10:57 on Sundays and three minutes before major celebrations, and funeral chimes that now use a single pattern before and after a funeral. Ciurana said the historic practice once distinguished between men, women and social classes, but that no longer applies.
Festive ringing includes the plenum, which uses all seven bells for major occasions such as New Year’s Eve, La Llum, Easter, Festa Major, Christmas Day at 12:00 and important elections such as those for a bishop or pope. Other chimes mark smaller feasts, Marian celebrations, Christmas, Pentecost, Ascension and Corpus Christi, while the longest, the Marian procession chime, lasts 45 minutes. More background on the basilica is available from the Seu Basilica and the Manresa City Council.
Ciurana said non-liturgical chimes once common in Manresa no longer exist, although bells were historically used for many civic purposes, including warning of fire, opening and closing city walls and calling the sometent. He supports using bells for more community events if they are widely shared, and said the city council’s request for bells to sound at the start of the Three Kings’ Parade is a good example.