City carillon (stadsbeiaard, #5)

*Location:

   South tower
   Cathedral of SS.Michael & Gudula
   (St.Michielstoren,
     Cathédrale St-Michel)
   Sint-Goedeleplein
   Bruxelles / Brussel, Brabant, Belgium
   LL: N 50.84782, E 4.35932

Site locator map
City locator maps and gazetteer page

*Carillonist:

   (None appointed; guests are evenly
   divided between ACW and VBV.)

   Paula Van de Wiele   (d.2007)
   Carl Van Eyndhoven

*Contact:

   Cathedral Culture & Tourism Office
   T: 02/217.83.45
   E: arsincathedrali@gmail.com

*Schedule:

   May-Sep: Saturday 1500-1600;
   Oct-Apr: weekly, about an hour near
   mid-day (variable day & time)

*Remarks:

   First four bells supplied through
   Horacantus in 1967.  North tower holds
   "Salvator", est.6600-6700 kg, 1638,
   by P. de Clerck & P. vanden Ghein.
   The previous carillon here (33 A.-J.
   vanden Gheyn, 1762-7, with 7 older
   bells) was not a city carillon
   (see  BRUSSELS - STN  and
   BRUSSELS - B  for the 4 previous ones);
   it was destroyed by war in 1793.

*Technical data:

   Traditional carillon of 49 bells
   Pitch of heaviest bell is A# in the bass octave
   Keyboard range:     G C 42/    A#G   
   Transposition is nil (concert pitch)
   There are two missing bass semitones
   The presence or absence of a practice console is unknown
   The whole instrument was installed in 1975
     with bells made by Eijsbouts        
   Prior history:
     In 1767, a complete instrument of 40 bells was installed
       by vandenGheyn 
       (0 bells remain from that work.)
       Pitch of heaviest bell was unknown
   Auxiliary mechanisms: EW7   
   Tower details not available
   Year of latest technical information source is 2021

The Cathedral Website, in three languages (EN, FR, NL), has a page about the schedule of carillon concerts.

The Dutch Wikipedia article about the building has photos of it, and mentions the [city] carillon in the south tower, but says nothing about any other bells.

The English-language Wikipedia article has a section about the bells, both "Salvator" in the north tower and the carillon in the south tower.

Page in Dutch with 19 photos of the building, 4 including the towers - all clickable for much larger versions.

Descriptive article (in Dutch, with tower photo) from the VBV (Vlaamse Beiaard Vereniging)

Illustrated article from the ACW (Association Campanaire Wallonie), with audio clips including Salvator swinging

A Waymarking page for these bells has 10 photos of the building.

Where the initial phase of this work lies in the sequence of output of the Vanden Gheyn bellfoundry, in this region and in the world.
Where the final phase of this work lies in the sequence of output of the Eijsbouts bellfoundry, in this region and in the world.

Ranking among all Belgian traditional carillons by pitch (weight).
Ranking among all Belgian traditional carillons by size (number of bells).
Ranking among all Belgian traditional carillons by year of completion.

Index to all traditional carillons in BE.

Index to all tower bell instruments in BE/Brussels.

   This page was built from the database on  1-Aug-25
   based on textual data last updated on 2025/05/28
   and on technical data last updated on 2022/07/20