Themed thread
The bells
Who cast them, who took them away, and one that weighs 2,900 kilos.
Bells have a name, a weight, a casting date and often a more eventful history than the church that houses them. The most distinctive of ours is at Revò: the largest was cast in 1534, weighs 2,900 kilos and in the village they call it Stefana.
Getting to the top of a tower could take decades. At Carnalez the little bell gable dates from 1694, but the bell to go in it was made only in 1762 by the founder Pietro Saletti: almost seventy years of waiting. At Tres the opposite happened: the five bells of the peal, cast by the Chiappani foundry in Trento to replace those burnt in the old church of Sant’Agnese in Colle, arrived before there was a tower to put them in, and it was decided to set them up temporarily in the middle of the village until 1910. At Cogolo the new church has never had a bell tower, and for the bells the one of the old parish church is still used.
Then there is the war, which in these valleys can be read on the bronze. During the First World War the Austrian army requisitioned the bells of half the valley: at Spormaggiore only one of the five remained, the oldest; at Sfruz the three of 1921, the work of the Francesco D’Adda firm of Cremona, replaced those taken away; at Mollaro two of the three; and at Segno, Tres, Tuenetto and Vervò they had to be recast in the 1920s. The oldest whose date we know is from 1486, cast for the church of Lanza and Mocenigo.
15 places where you meet it
- Chiesa dell'Addolorata nuovaVal di NonIn the second half of the 19th century the old church of the Addolorata no longer sufficed for the inhabitants, and it was decided to build a new one in the centre of the village, on land given by Count Paride Spaur.
- Chiesa della Madonna del RosarioVal di NonThe parish church of Vervò is mentioned as early as the first half of the fourteenth century, and in the following century it received the Eucharistic tabernacle and the baptismal font.
- Chiesa della Natività di MariaVal di NonAt the beginning of the nineteenth century Spormaggiore already had a parish church, but it had proved insufficient.
- Chiesa della Natività di MariaVal di NonOn the site there are remains of an older church, but the certain facts concern the fourteenth-century building and come from a notarial document.
- Chiesa della Natività di San Giovanni BattistaVal di NonThe pieve of Flavon appears in documents from 1242, and in 1290 a priest of the church is mentioned.
- Chiesa di Maria Madre della ChiesaValle di PejoCogolo, seat of the municipality of Peio, had grown too large for the old parish church of Santi Filippo e Giacomo to be enough, and it was decided to replace it.
- Chiesa di San FlorianoVal di NonThe ancient pieve of Arsio is mentioned from 1241, but it was probably built earlier.
- Chiesa di San MarcoVal di NonThe first place of worship dedicated to Saint Mark in Mollaro was visited by the envoys of Bernardo Clesio on 23 June 1537, and described as a small church with a single altar, that of its patron saint.
- Chiesa di San Michele ArcangeloVal di NonBernardo Clesio, on a pastoral visit in 1537, described it as having three altars; forty years later, in 1579, there were two, dedicated to Saint Michael and Saint Vigilius.
- Chiesa di San PietroVal di SoleThe foundation is certainly earlier than 1537, the year in which a church dedicated to San Pietro in Vermiglio is first mentioned.
- Chiesa di San RoccoVal di NonThe date of construction is uncertain: an ecclesiastical source, the archpriest Tomasi, places it in earlier times, but the documented mention is that of a pastoral visit of the late sixteenth century, which described it as being in poor condition.
- Chiesa di San Sisto IIVal di NonThe first mention of the place of worship may date back to 1344, and in 1481 a pastoral visit recorded the high altar as dedicated to Saint Zeno and Saint Sixtus: the dedication to Saint Sixtus II alone is fixed around 1687.
- Chiesa di Sant'AgataVal di NonIn 1537 Bishop Bernardo Clesio, during his pastoral visit, found a chapel dedicated to Saint Agnes near the masi of Sfruz.
- Chiesa di Sant'AgneseVal di NonOn the site of this church the first sacred building dated from the 15th century and was dedicated to San Rocco.
- Chiesa di Sant'AntonioVal di NonThe place of worship at Rallo is first mentioned in 1537, and the year the building was constructed is not known; the bell tower was erected in 1573.
The links between these places come from our entries, where every fact has been checked against the sources. The entries are written one at a time: this thread will grow with them.