The parish of Sant Bertomeu de Xàbia, within the actions to value and bring its religious heritage closer to the public, has prepared for this afternoon of Friday, March 17, a talk about its bells. It will be at 18:00 p.m. in the temple itself and will be offered by the expert Marcos Buigues Metola, from the Campaners guild of the Cathedral of Valencia and closely linked to Xàbia.
Buigues will talk about the four bronzes of Sant Bertomeu: the Victòria, the Sebastiana, the Mariana and the Bertomeua. Its history, vicissitudes and mechanization.
To do so, he will have the support of an extraordinary and valuable document such as the consueta of the sacristan who was in charge of the bells in 1769. This kind of 'instruction book' reflects what the bells were like in the different situations in which the bells served as a community information channel to alert the population of natural events such as fires, or celebrations such as funerals or even to announce news or announcements.
The parish has a project underway to restore the bells, since some of them, such as La Bertomeua, have not turned for almost two decades (since 2004) due to the precarious state of their anchorages, and to recover the traditional wooden yokes and with them their original sounds.
With this type of action, the Parish wants to involve the public in the maintenance of heritage and in recovering the traditional touches of Jávea and manual turning.
I'm sorry I couldn't attend, since I read this news today, the 18th. But I think it's a great idea to restore the bells and I hope it's done as soon as possible. A few years ago (I don't remember when) the Association of Bell Ringers of Valencia gave a bell concert in that Parish, which I was able to go to, and which I thought was beautiful and very interesting. Congratulations on that decision.