A sound that tells a story
A bell that rings only once a year, every year at the same time, in remembrance of what has been. Lest we forget.
The old country and the new country
The bell ringing in Longarone is the only surviving one of the three that belonged to the bell tower of the church that was completely destroyed by the Vajont disaster.
Forged in 1959 by a Udine foundry, it had been spreading its voice-“very sweet,” survivors assure-in the valley for a few years. It must have sounded even on the night of the disaster, when the village fell apart.
Hearing her voice from afar, as the inhabitants of that valley of yesteryear probably did, is no longer possible today. We would have liked to be able to hear it in the silence, and perhaps reflected in the immense concrete parabola of the dam that was the cause of the disaster and is still there, clearly visible from the church terrace. But the bell is small and the noise of traffic on the roads separating the church from the Vajont Valley and the dam is now relentless.
A great deal could be said about the sound of bells, the two levels of figure and background, their particular tuning system, the difficult art of casting, the national schools and parameters of official campanology, not to mention the techniques and traditions of bell ringers or “scampanotadôrs.”
We will not do this for this bell, because its meaning is precisely to make people think silently.
Directions
WHERE
In Longarone, on the outer amphitheater and around the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary Immaculate.
WHEN
October 9 each year at 10:39 p.m.
ACCESSIBILITY
The church is easily accessible and has ramps.
Audio
Binaural audio, headphone listening recommended.
Please note: no recording no matter how technically advanced can ever represent the experience of real listening. Topofonie.it is not an archive of sounds, but an invitation to go and listen with our own ears to the world around us. The files given here are for illustrative purposes only.
Links and curiosities
- On the 60th anniversary of the Vajont landslide that cost the lives of 2,000 people, Marco Paolini, with the collaboration of Marco Martinelli for La Fabbrica del Mondo curated a choral action of civil theater entitled: VajontS 23. We made our contribution by providing the recording of the Longarone bell, which rang simultaneously in over 260 theaters in Italy and abroad on the evening of October 9, 2023 at 22:39.
- The Longarone Vajont Museum has an extensive collection of historical images, artifacts and films that tell the story of the 1963 disaster. Memories related to listening often recur in the testimonies of those who were there. Of the mountain, of the wind, of the silence that followed the roar…