The conservation of the Camino de Santiago It has made possible the good condition of the bell towers of its churches, some structures in danger in many Spanish cities and also in small towns of Ourense and Lugo where several roofs “about to collapse” can be seen. This is underlined by José Enrique López Ocampo, the latest generation of bell ringers from Arcos da Condesa, who expresses the desire that this tradition of manual ringing of bells, one of the oldest forms of communication in cities and big cities.
Its “obradoiro” is one of the oldest in Spain. “Since 1630, almost 400 years, we have been producing bells for all of Spain and we continue to have orders from many places; At the moment I am with the molds for one of Ortoño weighing 250 kilos and two other smaller ones for Campo Lameiro and Monterroso”.
But his laboratory has had much more famous commissions, among these the two bells that at the beginning of 2000 rang in the Almudena Cathedral during Marriage of the current King Felipe VI with Letizia. Or those that still resound today in the Cathedral of Mondoñedo, in the Co-Cathedral of Vigo or in various churches in Barbanza, without forgetting the one that shines on the bell tower of the Torres do Oeste de Catoira.
That is why the only bell-making workshop in Galicia is today a point of reference for ensuring the survival of a means of transmission that the president of the Galician Bell Ringers Association José Andrés Barreiro Garrido defends, with enormous vehemence, and pleads to recover and preserve.
And it is that the language of the bells, in addition to being emotional, is so varied, rich and universal as to require a detailed study, while today it continues to be an excellent system for alerting the population of any need in the event that it has occurred “a collapse of computer networks”. Bells with which to announce a happy or sad fact, a special event, a risk or even the hours of the day. There are thousands of different touches which are documented in the Camino de Santiago, as the expert explains, but others have disappeared without remission.
different touches
This highlights the need to preserve the codes of some bells which both warn of a death in the parish, with differentiated rings for men and women and which even have a particular sound when a child dies, or “angel touch”. They vary from place to place, although the usual thing is that when a woman dies, three large bells are rung, one small, followed by three large ones. And when it’s a man, two big, one small…; and if he’s a child “the cadence of the dime is much softer” by controlling the volume of the bell.
But the weather is also announced with the “dawn shot”, consisting of 33 shots in a row; that of “Angel”, at noon with three times three taps joined by silences for the Ave Maria prayer and ends with a soldo. Even the toque a Rosario in which the peasants knelt when they heard the bells, the tolling of souls or the touch massone of the biggest.
The “tente cloud” to announce a storm
When it comes to a warning, such as in the case of a fire, “the bell is rung for 15 minutes” or “both bells simultaneously at high speed”. Another touch yet known is the “try the cloud” with which a storm or bad weather is warned at the rhythm of the verse “test-throne. test you-that God can-more than you”by way of pneumonic rule.
And out of curiosity the disappeared “call to work” when a difficult birth was warned and neighbors asked to pray for the pregnant woman.
