Vic gives official protection to the sound of its medieval old town bells

The Vic city council has unanimously approved declaring the sound of its old town bells a cultural asset of local interest.

The decision came from a proposal from the city's bell ringers' group, and the council has agreed to protect the aural heritage of Vic, with a history stretching to medieval times.

David Iglesias, one of the bell ringers, told the Catalan News Agency (ACN) that one of the first things the group will do after the cultural asset declaration is to make an inventory of all the bells that exist in the city.

About 70 bells are known and accounted for, but Iglesias does not rule out that there will be some "surprises" in additional bells they didn't know about prior.

Many of the bells date back to the Middle Ages, with one in the cathedral from 1532. The newest is a second-hand one only recently acquired by the Church of Our Lady of Sorrows.

Another bell ringer, Miquel dels Sants Canyelles, told ACN that the bells "accompany" the locals of Vic through the city a lot, and that they "give the old town a very special music."

Until recently, the bell ringing was a way of communicating between neighbors. The sound of the bells has always been a part of Vic locals' day-to-day life, whether to indicate the time or to warn that someone has died, but one that has dwindled in recent decades. 

Iglesias explains that many bells have been degrading recently from a significant lack of maintenance. "The fact that the bell ringers group disappeared also caused the abandonment of many bell towers, allowing a lot of pigeon dirt to accumulate," he points out.

In 2022, UNESCO declared the manual ringing of bells as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity.

The bell ringers of Vic

The group of bell ringers of Vic is comprised of around a dozen people of all different ages who all share the common interest of recovering the heritage of the sound of bells in the city.

"It's a joy to be able to hear the cathedral bell tower again, because for 30 years it wasn't heard very well, or only sporadically," laments Michel, a bell ringer, musician and art scholar.

He explains that when the group rings the bells on special occasions, such as on New Year's Eve or during Easter, the sound "excites" the locals. "People are surprised that the bell towers can be heard again," he says.

Historically, the job of a bell ringer has been associated with a man. Montse, however, is one of the women breaking the mold in this regard, and says that almost half of the group are women. "I participated one day by chance, and I really liked that experience," she tells ACN.

"I like the feeling of being on top of a bell tower when the bells ring. I come out of ringing much more relaxed and happy," she adds.