Silencing of church bells in a recent court ruling has not been very popular in a town in northern Italy. The removal of the bells was decided by a judge in nearby Trieste. There was also a petition ahead of it to put an end to ‘loud and excessive’ ringing.
Now, the dispute has sparked anger among the 4800 residents of Dolina, a town in Italy near Slovenia’s border. The town has a minority Slovene population as well. It seems that some people miss the bells of the Sant’Ulderico church, while others claim they have gotten much-needed relief. There have also been accusations of personal vendettas. It has been suggested that the European Commission act to ‘protect traditions’. According to them, bells served as clocks and announced the start of masses and feasts.
The Italian government has fined parishes if their bells are too loud, but they have never been confiscated. Klemen Zalar, a parish priest at the time, commented that this reaction had been overly strong. When some people were stuck at home during Covid lockdown in 2020, the automatically operated bells became unbearable for some people. ‘It was bam-bam, bam-bam all day long,’ said Mauro Zerial, the petition’s organizer, who counted 550 strokes between Monday and Saturday, and 1,350 on Sunday.
‘It would start at 6 am, with 70 strokes for the Ave Maria, then seven at 7 am, and then every 15 minutes until another long ring for the start of the evening mass. It was crazy. But nobody wanted the bells to be silenced, we just wanted them to be operated within the norms. And in no way was this an attack against Slovenian traditions,’ said Zerial.
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