The bells of the church of Segura (Gipuzkoa) sleep.
They no longer ring at night, as has happened for 300 years, according to locals.
A centuries-old tradition is lost in a municipality where its neighbors (1,430 inhabitants) try to preserve customs beyond time.
An anonymous complaint has forced the City Council to order that the bells stop ringing from 11:01 p.m. to 6:59 a.m.
Eight hours of silence at night are imposed, a decision that has not sat well with the majority of residents because it puts an end to a centuries-old practice that is “a hallmark of the town,” says Laureano Telleria, 88, for more than four decades the last ringer of Segura: “We are very sad.
It's a shame because the sound of bells is something we carry deep inside.”
Segura was built between walls to guard the border with Navarra.
It was founded in 1256, when King Alfonso X The Wise granted it the jurisdiction of Vitoria.
It still preserves a medieval morphology and you can see what were once moats, drawbridges and defensive towers.
Its main architectural relic is the church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, with a cathedral feel and originally Gothic style, although it gradually acquired Baroque elements, such as its altarpiece built in 1743. It is a rural town where tranquility reigns.
This municipality of Goierri has not yet digested the council's decision to prohibit the ringing of bells at night.
“They have stolen the iron rhythm that was part of the acoustic landscape of our village,” laments young Elur.
One complainant demanded that the bells stop ringing during sleeping hours.
He first went to the City Council and then processed his complaint before the Ararteko (Basque Ombudsman).
Measurements were carried out during the chimes and it was found that the decibels emitted by them exceeded the municipal noise regulations.
“We do not know who filed the complaint.
Nobody knows who he is.
He is, as they say, under summary secrecy,” says Telleria.
In his letter, the complainant argues that “sleep and rest are essential for people's physical and emotional well-being, according to the World Health Organization.”
He adds that the ringing of the bells, repeated every 15 minutes, “harms the rest” of the neighbors and that it is a practice that has allowed the mission it had in the past to be fulfilled.
Between eight at night and eight in the morning, the bells struck 179 times, the City Council says in an information note.
The tinkling happens every quarter of an hour.
The company in charge of maintaining the clock that regulates the ringing was contacted and it was proposed to reduce the volume of the bells, but this option was ruled out because during the day the sound would be inaudible "in many areas of the town."
Taking everything into account and “giving priority to coexistence between all neighbors,” says the official statement, it was agreed to “comply with the regulations and silence the bells between 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m.”
This has been happening since the end of last December.
Laureano Telleria dedicated himself from 1977 to 2019 to climbing two or three times a week to the top of the church bell tower to wind the clock.
“There are 160 stairs and I estimate that I will have climbed about 5,200 times in those 42 years,” he says.
He is sad because “a very beautiful tradition is ending.”
Bells have always fulfilled the function of informing people, especially about the main religious services, says Telleria, detailing the richness of the language of the bells.
When the deceased was sounded, everyone found out that there was a deceased, and a different tone was given if the dead person was a man, woman or a child.
The ringing of agony communicated that someone was about to die.
Prayers were played to ask for rain, there was a special touch to announce storms or fire, they also used to report a sale of land.
During the day it is also played at the time of the Angelus, to announce the morning or evening Hail Mary, the announcements of the masses... He learned this technique from his father and later from his brother.
The nun María Lezeta taught him up to 16 different ways of ringing the bells.
“I always did it for nothing, without receiving anything in return,” he wants to specify.
Four years ago Telleria stopped climbing the spiral staircase to the tower.
Since he did not find relief, since then Segura's bells have rung automatically.
A computer application allows you to activate the clock (it is property of the City Council) from your mobile phone, and speakers spread the sound of the flip to the four winds.
They ring at a height of 200 meters, from an ecclesiastical watchtower where there are five bells, the largest of which weighs 1,950 kilos and is more than a meter high.
The bells of the church of Our Lady of the Assumption of Segura (Gipuzkoa).Javier Hernandez Juantegui
The neighbor who asked to end the nightly ringing maintains, as stated in his letter sent to the City Council, that "the argument of tradition has been used to maintain inappropriate customs or that go against human rights" and cites the prohibition as examples. for women to enter gastronomic societies, the Lekeitio goose festival, the Alarde of Irún and Hondarribia (the parade of arms where women are not allowed to act on equal terms with men) or bullfights.
“Luckily,” this person adds, “unacceptable traditions that existed until recently have been disappearing as society has matured.”
Elur strongly disagrees and considers it “an excess” to equate the bells of the night with machismo or bullfighting: “The majority of the population that has grown up with the ringing of the bells is in favor of them continuing to ring.
The nights are sadder now,” he adds, missing the music that comes from the bell tower, its acoustic frequency.
“Something distinctive about Segura has been lost,” Telleria says sadly.
He is convinced that “more than 90% of the residents would be in favor of ringing the bells at night if a popular consultation is held in the town.”
Esteban, another neighbor, prefers not to get into the controversy, although he acknowledges that for him “it is no problem to hear the bells.”
Tradition has a lot of weight here.
This town and Hondarribia are the only ones in Gipuzkoa that maintain the Holy Week processions in the old way.
The festival of San Nicolás is also celebrated with fervor in December, known as “the festival of the bishop” and which consists of appointing a six-year-old boy or girl who walks the streets of Segura in Advent clothing as bishop of the Church. of a prelate.
Virtually all the houses in the town have a blessed hawthorn branch placed at the entrance which, according to the villagers, serves to ward off curses.
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