Domtower: 112 meters tall
City-arms of Utrecht
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Bellringing in Utrecht
Utrecht is the most important 'bell-ring city' in The Netherlands: it has
more than 100 churchbells, amongst them 20 mediaeval ones. The Domtower
is with its 112 meters the tallest churchtower in the country. All the
bells of the Domtower are still rung by hand. The volunteers who ring the
bells of the Domtower and two other mediaeval churchtowers in the inner
city of Utrecht are members of the UKG: The UtrechtsKlokkenluiders
Gilde
[The Utrecht Bellringers Guild]. The UKG has 45 bell-ringing volunteers
and more than 300 supporting members. The UKG was founded in 1979.
The bells of the Domtower
The Netherlands has no change-ring-tradition
but it has a long (and world-famous!) carillon-tradition. The tower has
a Hemony-carillon counting 50 bells mainly dating from 1663/1664.
The carillon is placed in the third section, the open upper part of the
tower (at 70 meters). The official town-carillonplayer is Arie Abbenes.
For information about this carillon visit the site 
"The carillon in
the Domtower of Utrecht" (in dutch).
At 50 meters, in de second section, it also has
a peal of 14 (ringing)bells (7 of them date from 1505/1506) together
they weigh ± 32.000 kilogrammes. The largest, the Salvator
(dating from 1505) has a weight of more than 8.200 kilogrammes: it takes
four persons to ring this bell. In 1505 Geert van Wou, in his time
the most famous bell-founder of The Netherlands made an impressive harmonious
peal of 13 bells. The 7 smaller ones were sold in 1664 to finance the new
carillon founded by the brothers Francois and Pieter Hemony.
The construction of the tower was completed in
1382. In 1982 on the occasion of the 600th 'anniversary' 7 new bells were
made by the Dutch bell-foundry Royal
Eijsbouts in Asten to replace the ones that disappeared in 1664.
More information
We can't offer you standard information in English,
but if you have any questions about bells and bell-ringing in Utrecht or
about the Utrecht Bellringers Guild, you're welcome to contact us by
email and we will try to give you a personal answer. Our postal address
is: Secretariaat UKG, Postbus 19175, 3501 DD Utrecht - The Netherlands |
