Bells of Brittany: Basilique Notre-Dame-du-Roncier, Josselin скачать в хорошем качестве

Bells of Brittany: Basilique Notre-Dame-du-Roncier, Josselin

The town of Josselin holds a special place in my very being, as it is the town I grew up near when I lived in France. Every Saturday near enough would see my parents and I go to the market there, where I would hear the bells of the Basilique Notre-Dame-du-Roncier, the town's Roman Catholic parish church. Thank you very much to Père Jérôme Sécher, the Basilique's priest, for allowing me to ring the bells and also to the Mairie de Josselin for giving me access to the belfry of the Basilique. The Basilique Notre-Dame-du-Roncier in Josselin is a spectacular medieval parish church, situated in the heart of the picturesque medieval town of Josselin in the Morbihan region of Brittany, France. There has been a place of worship on the site of the Basilica for over a thousand years, however the current building was begun in the 12th century. A Romanesque church was built on the site and was by all intents and purposes quite large. In 1158, King Henry II of England sacked the town of Josselin, destroying the castle and the church. Only small remnants of the original Romanesque church remain in the choir – the south wall has a bricked up Romanesque window and the Rohan family chapel has a late Romanesque double arcade. The church was rebuilt in the following decades, with the transept crossing built in a transitional Romanesque Gothic style which was fashionable at the time. In the 14th century, Constable Olivier de Clisson rebuilt both the castle and the south transept chapel, dedicated to Ste Marguerite. Clisson’s tomb is present in the chapel, and it boasts beautifully carved effigies of him and his wife. Between the 1460s and 1491, the church was radically rebuilt in the fashionable Flamboyant Gothic style. A new triple nave stretched westwards, with a north western tower built. The work was started under Duke Alain IX de Rohan, and the north aisle was finished in 1491 with support from Duke Jean II de Rohan. The nave has a wooden ceiling, whilst the choir had a stone vault. Between the years of 1855 and 1900, the church was the subject of a major restoration and in 1891 it was made a Basilica (an important place of Catholic pilgrimage) by a papal bull. The choir vault had fallen into ruin and so it was replaced with a plaster vault. Two architects from Nantes by the names of Émile Libaudière and René Ménard provided designs for a new tower and sacristy, as the medieval tower, already shored up in the 18th century after the belfry level collapsed, had become dangerous. The sacristy was built first and then the new tower was built at the Basilica’s north eastern corner between 1923 and 1949, with the original tower demolished that year. The lower half of the tower was completed before World War Two, and then the spire was finished by 1949 after the war. Despite being a modern tower, the Neo Gothic design harmonises really well with the rest of the church and is a very attractive building. The tower contains nine bells. Three are clock bells, hung in the spire, which chime every quarter of an hour and every hour. Six others are hung for swing chiming. One of those is not ringable, as it is now surrounded by flooring. The five other bells form the principle ring. They are a most impressive ring of bells. Below are details: 5 – G#/Sol#3, cast in 1925 by Cornille-Havard of Villedieu-les-Poeles. ~600kg/~12cwt. 4 – F/Fa3, cast in 1925 by Cornille-Havard of Villedieu-les-Poeles. ~1,000kg/~20cwt. 3 – D#3/Re#3, cast at an unknown date by Viel-Tetrel of Villedieu-les-Poeles. ~1,400kg/~28cwt. 2 – C#/Do#3, cast in 1925 by Cornille-Havard of Villedieu-les-Poeles. ~2,100kg/~41cwt. Bourdon – G#/Sol#2, cast in 1925 by Cornille-Havard of Villedieu-les-Poeles. 5,000kg/100cwt. 0:48 – bell 5/cloche 5. Sol#3/G#. 3:24 – bell 4/cloche 4. Fa3/F. Bell 3 not ringable. Cloche 3 en panne. 6:43 – bell 2/cloche 2. Do#3/C#. 12:25 – bourdon. Sol#2/G#. Different combinations/sonneries diverse. 17:27 – G# and C#/Sol#3 et Do#3. 18:27 – F and C#/Fa3 et Do#3. 18:58 – F, D# (chimed) and C#/Fa3, Re#3 (tintement) et Do#3. 19:47 – F, C# and G#/Fa3, Do#3 et Sol#2. 20:22 – F, D# (chimed), C# and G#/Fa3, Re#3, Do#3 et Sol#2. 21:00 – G#, C# and G#/Sol#3, Do#3 et Sol#2. 22:27 – G#, F, C# and G#/Sol#3, Fa3, Do#3 et Sol#2. 23:33 – G#, F and C#/Sol#3, Fa3 et Do#3. 26:24 – plenum (D# chimed/Re#3 en tintement).