A tower containing one or more bells, typically part of a church is a bell tower; attached to a city hall or other civil building, it is usually named belfry; the occasional free standing one may be referred to by its Italian name, campanile. Such towers are now rarely constructed but are kept primarily for their historic value.

The bell is rung to signify the time, for special events such as weddings and funerals, or especially in old days to sound a civil defense or fire alarm.

Bell towers may also contain carillons, a musical instrument traditionally comprised of large bells which are sounded by cables, chains, or cords connected to a keyboard. These can be found in many churches in Europe and at some college and university campuses. In modern constructions that do not qualify as carillons, rather than using heavy bells the sound may be produced by the striking of small metal rods whose vibrations are amplified electronically and sounded through loudspeakers.

Belfries occur in England, and in the western provinces of Flanders and around: the bordering Flemish and Walloon provinces, the north of France and the Dutch town Sluis. Bruges, Ypres, Ghent, Lille, Tournai and Douai have famous examples. In the Middle Ages, cities sometimes kept their important documents in belfries.

In 1999 thirty-two Belgian belfries were added to the UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites. In 2005 this list was extended with one Belgian and twenty-three French belfries and is since known as Belfries of Belgium and France. Most of these were attached to civil buildings, mainly city halls, as symbols of the greater power the cities in the region got in the Middle Ages; a small number of buildings not connected with a belfry, such as bell towers of - or with their - churches, occur also on this same list (details).

The word belfry comes from Old French berfrei which is derived from Germanic bergan "to protect" and frithuz "peace"; that is, it was originally a watch tower providing protection against hostile incursions. Since Middle English speakers thought berfrei had something to do with bells, they altered it to belfry, an interesting example of the effect of Folk etymology. Today's Dutch belfort seems to combine the bell with the stronghold.

Image gallery

See also

• Campanile
• Carillon
• Clock tower
• Belfries of Belgium and France, ensemble recognized as UNESCO World Heritage Site

External links

• The Campanile at the University of California, Berkeley
• Belfries of Belgium and France - UNESCO World Heritage Centre entry

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