Cultural asset or unnecessary din? Bell ringing polarises opinion

The foundation stone of the parish church of St Martin in Hochdorf was laid in 1758. SRF

In Hochdorf, a municipality in canton Lucerne in central Switzerland, the church bell now tolls for a shorter duration, though other parishes continue to stick to tradition.

Switzerland is home to between 12,000 and 15,000 church bells, many of which still ring at quarter-hour intervals in Catholic cantons. This practice has become a source of irritation for some, including 86-year-old Margrit Mederlet-Muri, who lives near the church in Hochdorf.

“You can’t stand outside in summer. You can’t even have a conversation anymore,” says Margrit Mederlet-Muri SRF

“You can’t stand outside in summer. You can’t even have a conversation anymore,” she says. As a result, she contacted the church council to ask them to reduce the bell ringing.

Her request sparked a heated debate in the village and letters to local newspapers. “Everyone who lives near a church knows that church bells toll,” wrote one reader of the Seetaler Boten.

A contributor to the Luzerner Zeitung argued that bells are unnecessary, at least at night. “People who aren’t disturbed because they’re asleep don’t care about the chimes during the night anyway.”

Other municipalities take preventive measures

Some Lucerne parishes have sought to pre-empt such disputes. In Reiden, the bells were entered into the land register a few years ago, making legal objections more challenging. Entlebuch followed suit with a similar approach.

In Hochdorf, however, the church council opted for compromise. While the bells won’t be silenced altogether, their tolling has been reduced.

The foundation stone of the parish church of St Martin in Hochdorf was laid in 1758. SRF

For instance, the parish has eliminated the “repetition chime” during the night, which previously involved a second bell sounding the time on the hour. The ringing before church services will also be scaled back.

“We want to accommodate both opponents and supporters so the church remains a focal point of the village,” says Patrizia Boesch-Schibli, president of the Hochdorf church council.

Noise disputes boost technical innovation

Stopping the bells entirely isn’t straightforward, according to Thomas Muff, managing director of specialist firm Muff Kirchturmtechnik AG in Triengen. “With a mechanical clock like the one in this case, you can’t simply turn off the mechanism, as this would disrupt the timekeeping,” says Muff.

Church tower technician Thomas Muff has developed the so-called anchor clapper (far right), which, thanks to its unusual shape, ensures that the chime is almost 15 decibels quieter. SRF

Requests to lower the volume of church bells are also becoming more common. Muff’s company is exploring solutions, including a specially designed clapper (the metal shaft that swings back and forth inside to strike a bell and makes it ring) that produces quieter tones.

Back in Hochdorf, the bells still ring around the clock but for shorter periods. For Mederlet-Muri, the compromise is acceptable. “It works for me personally, though I had hoped to help those seeking peace and quiet at night,” she says.

When it comes to finding the right balance for church bells, it seems there is currently no solution that satisfies everyone.

Federal Court upholds night-time bell ringing

In 2017, this issue was brought to the Swiss Federal Court. This was prompted by a couple from Wädenswil, canton Zurich, who were disturbed by the Protestant Reformed Church’s quarter-hourly chimes at night.

The Federal Court argued that the nightly bell-ringing was a tradition. It also commented on the noise pollution. The complainants lived around 200 metres away from the church tower. This meant that the noise pollution “did not qualify as a significant disturbance”, it said. As such, stopping the night-time ringing would only result in a modest “improvement in the noise situation”.

Translated from German using DeepL/amva/sb