The bells of the Historical Building of the UB will ring again
The bells of the Historical Building of the UB will tell the time in Plaça Universitat. The inauguration took place this morning, Tuesday, April 9, at 12 noon, presided by the rector of the UB, Joan Elias.
These bells were silent for more than two decades: since 1995, when the clock broke and the bells stopped working. Its reparation was too expensive and therefore they were left without sounding. Not until some years later the reparation works started taking place. The spring of 2009 was the time to start the restoration of the clock and bell tower of the Historical Building, which had suffered damage for 130 years. Restoration tasks lingered over four months. During that first stage they recovered the metallic structure in the bell tower, together with the two bronze bells. However, these didnʼt bell. Now, thanks to an initiative from the Vice-rectorʼs office of Arts, Culture and Heritage of the University, these will be back.
The bells of the Historical Building of the UB will tell the time in Plaça Universitat. The inauguration took place this morning, Tuesday, April 9, at 12 noon, presided by the rector of the UB, Joan Elias.
These bells were silent for more than two decades: since 1995, when the clock broke and the bells stopped working. Its reparation was too expensive and therefore they were left without sounding. Not until some years later the reparation works started taking place. The spring of 2009 was the time to start the restoration of the clock and bell tower of the Historical Building, which had suffered damage for 130 years. Restoration tasks lingered over four months. During that first stage they recovered the metallic structure in the bell tower, together with the two bronze bells. However, these didnʼt bell. Now, thanks to an initiative from the Vice-rectorʼs office of Arts, Culture and Heritage of the University, these will be back.
The work carried out consists on the replacement of the iron elements for bronze ones -which do not damage the metal in the bells, which are more than a century old- and the installation of an electronic system to schedule the time when they ring. The sound of the bells will reach 65 decibels, from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., from Monday to Sunday.
“What we want is, with a low budget, to recover heritage elements of the Historical Building; in this case, the sound of the bells”, notes Salvador García Fortes, vice-rector for Arts, Culture and Heritage of the UB. And he continues: “The bells, in addition, have a dual heritage side. We want to take back the sound, the presence of the UB among society, through a ʻmusical instrumentʼ (the bell that rings the hours does so in a mi musical note, while the one that rings the quarters will do so in sol), like the bells that have been always linked to the Historical Building”. A building that is emblematic in this city, declared national historical and artistic monument in 1970.
A clock to time the rhythm of the academic and the city life
“ALUMNI ET MAGISTRI ACADEMIAE BARCINONENSIS OBTEMPERATE SONO” (students and teachers of the academy of Barcelona, obey our sound) is part of the Latin inscription in the bell that ticks the hours. Elias Rogent, in his early projects, wanted a bell tower with a clock showing the time, precision and rigor of the academic life. This clock had to be at the center of the façade of the Historical Building of the University, but it never got built in the project, which started in 1863 and by 1872 was almost finished.
In its place, in 1877, in the western tower, they built the current iron structure (metal structure with four arms covering the bells as a Renaissance dome), following Rogentʼs designs, who probably counted on the collaboration of Joan Torras Guardiola, who was also a lecturer in Escola Provincial dʼArquitectura (school of architecture), located in the Historical Building and led by Rogent.
The bell that rings the hors has a 110 cm diameter and weighs 750 kg, and the one that rings the quarters has a 97 cm diameter and weighs 500 kg. Both have the coat of arms of the University of Barcelona with the “Perfundet Omnia Luce” words, with a royal crown, and Latin inscriptions which tell the bells were created by the Miquel Forcada foundry in 1880, during Alfonso XIIʼs reign.
The documents kept in the Records Office of the UB show more details of this building. We can find, for instance, the records of the contract to build the clock of the bells, where there is the original plan of the clock tower (1877). There is also the documents with the conditions of the contract to build the bell tower (1880), and another on the billing to pay the bells, dated in August 1880, which reveals these cost 6,566 pesetas.
Narrated by the newspapers in 1881
The newspapers of the time narrated this episode like a great event for the city. “The windows of El gallo de oro, in Plaça Reial, show a bell clock to be placed in the University. The clock, will tick the time and has been built in Barcelona by the Cabanyach family. The bells are already in the hall of the University, so we expect them to work soon”, was read in Diari català, on March 1, 1881, and other newspapers, such as La Vanguardia, narrated the big event too. However, the bells rang for the first time on June 18, 1881.
The images of the bells and the inauguration are available, apart from the documentation from the Records Office of the UB, in this Flickr album:
Tornen a sonar les campanes de lʼEdifici Històric de la UB