Bells

The thing I will remember about Bruge, Belgium, the thing I believe I will hang onto the longest will not be what I saw or tasted but what I heard. The church bells. There are seven medieval and early gothic churches in Bruge, built between the 12th and 15th centuries. Baroque, Gothic, and Romanticism have all lefts marks in this medieval city and that can be seen in the churches, which are amazing as I think you can see from these photos. But what is heard is something so much more because it is above and beyond time and style. Sound does not change, the sound of a bell must be the same today as it was centuries ago.

The bells ring across the gabled roof tops, along the city streets, rippling across the surface of the canal waters, through the windows, over the chimneys, curving over the cobblestone and brick streets, the bells ring. The low vibration of the heavy bells and the higher sound of the smaller bells, ringing, ringing, ringing, dancing, climbing and floating. The hum and the peal of the bells, layer upon layer of their ringing moving through the air. Every half hour.