Murcia Cathedral
Plaza Cardenal Belluga
ES-30001 Murcia
T: 968 216 344 (sacristy)
E: info /@/ catedralmurcia DOTorg
- or -
Museo de la Catedral de Murcia
Plaza Cardenal Belluga
ES-30001 Murcia
T: 968 219 713 F: 968 221 083
E: visitas /@/ catedralmurcia DOTcom
*Schedule:
Clock with quarter bell and hour bell;
autoplay liturgical
*Remarks:
Tower open to visitors.
Bells variously dated, 18th & 19th c.
*Technical data:
Electric-automatic chime of 18 bells
Pitch of heaviest bell is unknown
Transposition is not applicable
Keyboard range: NONE / NONE
The arrangement of tones and semitones is unknown.
The whole instrument was installed in unknown year
with bells made by an unknown maker
No auxiliary mechanisms known
Tower details not available
Year of latest technical information source is 2023
*Links:
The Cathedral Website is available
in four languages.
Its page about the building has a photo
that shows 5 visible flywheel bells on the front of its belfry.
An architecture page has a
short section
about the bell tower, but does not describe the bells.
That tower is the second-tallest in Spain, and can be climbed by the public.
The English Wikipedia
article about the cathedral
has a photo of it, in which bells are visible in the openings of the tower.
This article has a short section about the bell tower, and another about the bells;
it asserts the existence of 25 bells, and names seven, but does not describe any.
The corresponding Spanish Wikipedia
article about the cathedral
has essentially the same text about the tower and bells, though it does name 20 of them.
Thus it agrees with the campaners.com inventory (see below).
There is a separate
article about the tower.
Twenty are named, and another (the oldest) has been removed to a museum, but none are described.
The campaners.com inventory of 2019
has a detailed description of every bell (and is worth reading in translation).
Unfortunately, the link to the museum is broken.
The main belfry contains 20 (18 liturgical bells plus 2 clock bells) in two levels;
they date from 1609 to 1902 plus two modern recastings,
with the largest group from one founder being 7 cast by Manuel Rosas in 1815.
All are hung flywheel style, but some are rung with solenoids pulling chains to the clappers.
Some of the swingers also have outside electric hammers.
A quarter bell is on the level above the belfry, the ancient "Mora" bell is in the museum,
and another small bell is elsewhere, for a total of 23 bells in the collection.
A Spanish-language
page about the bells includes a video (3:25) with Spanish narration, which
shows almost all of the bells.
This work having been produced by a variety of bellfoundries in a variety of years,
it is not indexed by foundry.