Sysoy (bell). What is the name of the largest bell on the belfry of the Rostov Kremlin? How many bells on the Rostov belfry

It was built by order of Metropolitan Jonah Sysoevich. A letter has survived, in which he said: “I pour bells on my yard, and people are amazed” (Lyubimov L. D. Art of Ancient Rus. Moscow, 1981, p. 314).

The Church of the Entry into Jerusalem is located on the lower floors of the belfry. On the top floor there is an open area with a four-span arcade. Each of these spans is fenced off with a metal lattice, and at the top they are completed by semicircular arches (zakomars). Above the spans there are four drums with heads crowned with crosses. To get to the upper floor of the belfry, you need to go along a narrow staircase. From the spans to the ground, there are voids inside the belfry, which turns the building itself into an excellent resonator. The acoustic effect is also enhanced by the location of the belfry close to the open space of Lake Nero.

The construction of the belfry of the Rostov Kremlin dates back to 1682, when a three-span belfry was erected. By order of Metropolitan Jonah, the foundryman Philip Andreev made two large bells ("Polyeleos" and "Swan"). The chord of the bells of the belfry was in minor. This did not suit the Metropolitan and he invited the foundry worker Flora Terentyev from Moscow, who turned the belfry into a major mode. In 1688 the master cast the Sysoy bell, which weighed 32 tons. This giant required a separate belfry, which, in the form of a fourth span, was attached to a three-span one. Three bells - "Sysoy", "Polyeleyny" and "Swan" - together formed the C major sound. The bell tower was completed in 1689 when 13 bells were hung from two oak beams. In the second half of the 19th century, 2 more bells were added.

Bells of the belfry of the Rostov Kremlin

« Sysoy"- the largest bell. Its weight is 32 tons. It was cast by Flor Terentyev, a foundry worker at the Moscow Cannon Yard. Metropolitan Jonah named the bell after his father Sysoi, a humble rural priest. The main tone of the bell is "C" of a small octave.

« Polyoleonic". The name is translated from Greek as "many merciful". The weight is 16 tons. Made by Philip Andreev and his son Cyprian - craftsmen from Moscow. The main tone is the "mi" note of a small octave.

« Swan". The weight is 8 tons. Made by Philip Andreev. Minor octave G note.

« Hunger". Weight 2800 kg. One of the most beautiful bells in its sound. They beat him during Lent, from this fact he got its name. The note is "la".

« Ram". Weight 1310 kg. The oldest bell on the Rostov belfry. It was made in 1654 by the Moscow master Emelyan Danilov for the belfry, which was located at the Assumption Cathedral earlier. The note "mi".

« Red". Weight 491 kg. The note "G" of the first octave.

« Goat". Weight 327 kg. It was made in the 19th century at the Olovyanishnikov plant in Yaroslavl.

« Nabatny"Or" Jonathan's ". Weight 106 kg. Made in 1894 at the Olovyanishnikov plant. The main tone is "mi" of the second octave.

The belfry also has four unnamed bells weighing 180, 144, 87 and 72 kilograms.

The bells were threatened with destruction several times. During the war with Sweden, Peter I was going to cast the bells into weapons. But the metropolitanate gave from their storerooms about 245 kg (15 poods) of silver, and later paid a huge amount for that time to the state treasury - 15 thousand rubles. In the 20th century, during the civil war, there were proposals to melt the bells into raw materials. After 1928, bells stopped ringing. However, Rostov bells were used in the filming of the films "Peter I" and "War and Peace". In the late 60s of the XX century, the ringing gradually began to return.

The belfry, together with the Assumption Cathedral, are part of the historical monuments of the Rostov Kremlin, but they do not belong to the Rostov Kremlin Museum-Reserve. Therefore, the ticket office for visiting the belfry is located on its ground floor.

Its building is built next to the Assumption Cathedral and stretches from north to south.

The cathedral and the belfry are in good harmony with each other, although the times of their construction are more than one century apart. The belfry facades are vertically dissected by flat projections - blades; and horizontally - with three belts. In the lower floors there is church of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem and utility rooms. The upper floor is an open area with a four-span arcade. Each of the spans is fenced with an openwork metal lattice and is completed at the top with a keeled zakomara, above each of the spans on a round drum there is a head crowned with a cross. A steep, narrow staircase within the walls leads to the upper floor, revealed on the façade by tiny windows. From the bell spans to the ground, the belfry has continuous voids, making the building an excellent resonator. The closeness of the belfry to the open space of Lake Nero enhances the acoustic effect.

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Belfry history

The belfry was built in two stages. The construction began in 1682. During this period, the main three-span belfry was built. Craftsman Philip Andreev, by order of the Rostov Metropolitan Iona Sysoevich, made two of the largest bells for the belfry - "Polyeleyny" and "Swan". The chord of the bells of the belfry was minor, which for unknown reasons did not suit the Rostov metropolitan. Iona Sysoevich invited the bell-maker Flora Terentyev to Rostov, who was given the most difficult task - to transfer the belfry to the major key. The master did an excellent job with this task. In 1688, he cast the Sysoy bell, weighing 2000 poods. A huge bell, with the mass of one tongue alone about 100 pounds, required a separate belfry, which, in the form of a fourth span, was attached to the previous three-span structure. "Sysoy", "Polyelleus" and "Swan" together formed a C major triad. The work was done very accurately, the tone of "Sysoy" deviates by less than a third of a percent from the frequency required by the musical system for the formation of a major chord. Presumably satisfied, Iona Sysoevich named the new bell after his father. According to legend, in one of his private letters, the Rostov metropolitan wrote: "I pour bells in my courtyard, little people wonder." There is still a version that the pond in the middle of the Kremlin courtyard served as a casting pit, but this is very unlikely. In such a case, the transportation of the bells to the belfry would be very difficult, especially since the walls separating the pond from the belfry had already been erected by that time. It is possible that the casting pit for casting large bells was located in the cathedral square behind the Hodegetria church - opposite the belfry, but this assumption requires archaeological and documentary verification.

The final construction of the belfry was completed in 1689. Then 13 bells were hung in one row and firmly fixed on metal hooks and a thick oak bar, except for four of them, hanging on another bar, attached to the main one at right angles. In the second half of the 19th century, 2 more bells were added to them. Since then, 15 bells have been hanging on the belfry of the Rostov Kremlin.

The threat of annihilation repeatedly hung over the Rostov bells. During the war with Sweden, Peter I ordered the removal of the bells in order to compensate for the lack of weapons. However, Rostov churches and the belfry of the Assumption Cathedral escaped this fate. This was due to the fact that in 1691 Peter I took 15 poods of silver utensils from the metropolitan's storerooms for minting coins, and later, from 1692 to 1700, the Rostov Metropolitanate paid another 15,000 rubles to the state treasury. The huge payment undermined the economic power of the once very rich metropolitanate, so that any significant new construction on its territory became impossible. However, this helped to preserve the Rostov bells, about which Platon Levshin wrote the following in the 18th century:

In the 20th century, with the advent of Soviet power, a new threat loomed over the bells. In the difficult years of the civil war, in the wake of the struggle of the new government with religion and everything that reminded of the tsarist regime, there was a proposal to remove the bells from the belfry and turn them into raw materials for industrial needs. Fortunately, then the director of the Rostov museum D.A. Ushakov applied for the preservation of the bells in Moscow. Thanks to him and the People's Commissar A.V. Lunacharsky, who arrived in Rostov in the summer of 1919 with a group of scientists, the bells were saved. However, in 1923, another misfortune fell on the belfry - the belt on which the tongue of "Sysoi" was held broke. The fastening of the tongue should be soft, in ancient years it was first suspended on a walrus vein, then on a specially made rawhide belt. In the years of devastation, it was not possible to find suitable material. The tongue was fixed on a metal rod and pulled up. After that, the blow began to fall not into the musical ring, but a little higher. This weakened the strength of the sound, changed its timbre, caused squeaks. According to experts, the bell tongue must be outweighed in order to return it to its former sound, especially since for hundreds of years there have been traces of blows on both sides of the Sysoi, although at different times the bell was struck in different ways - sometimes in one, both edges. The flight time of the bell tongue is 1.4 seconds.

Since 1928, ringing on the belfry of the Assumption Cathedral was stopped, and the cathedral itself was closed in 1930. Since then, they were reproduced in 1932 during the filming of the film Peter I and in March 1963, when the Gorky Film Studio recorded the ringing for the country's music library, in June 1963 during the filming of the film War and Peace and for a number of subsequent films. In 1966, the All-Union Recording Company "Melodia" released a massive circulation of the vinyl record "Rostov Ringing", which was subsequently reprinted several times. The disc became an exhibit at the EXPO-67 world exhibition in Montreal. From that time on, the Rostov bells began to gradually revive.

Bells

There are also 4 nameless bells on the belfry:

  • 11-pound (180 kg) - "before" the second octave (in 2001 it was replaced with a new one, due to the fact that it gave a serious crack. The new 329-kilogram Ural bell does not differ in euphony and sounds unsuccessful against the background of old bells).
  • 8.8 pounds (144 kg) - "re" of the second octave.
  • 5.3 pounds (87 kg) - "fa" of the second octave.
  • 4.4 pounds (72 kg) - "fa #" of the second octave.

The Ringing Group has 3 ringing bells:

  • 3.8 pounds (62 kg) - "salt" of the second octave.
  • 2.6 pounds (43 kg) - "la" of the second octave.

A small but sonorous bell hung on the wall of the cathedral facing the belfry "Yasak" weighing 60 pounds (24 kg), which gave the bell ringer a signal to start ringing. Thanks to Father Aristarchus, in the 19th century, the bell fell on the belfry together with the Jonathan bell. "Yasak" completed the scale of the Rostov belfry, becoming the third bell with the note "C" in the selection ("C" of the third octave). Only used in a few calls. The main role of the bell is assigned to the Jonathan ringing.

The largest temple of the Rostov Kremlin is the Assumption. As already mentioned in the previous post, there were only 4 temples in this place. The one that we see was built in 1508. The height of the cathedral with the cross reaches 60 meters. One of the cathedral's rectors was the father of the epic Russian knight Alyosha Popovich, who died heroically in the battle with the Mongols on Kalka. In 1314 the youth Bartholomew - Sergius of Radonezh was baptized here.


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Strange, but Cathedral Square, on which the temple and Belfry stands, do not belong to the Rostov Kremlin Museum. Entry here is free, a fee is taken for climbing the belfry 100 rubles and taking photos / videos in the temple.


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The Holy Gate is the main entrance to the Metropolitan Court. Through these gates, the metropolitans solemnly entered Cathedral Square. In 1670 the Church of the Resurrection was added.


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Rostov chimes are amazing. This time I managed to climb the Belfry.


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We heard the ringing when we were walking around the Kremlin:

The passage upstairs is very narrow, you will not be able to disperse. The steps are high, so going down is harder than going up.


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The belfry offers stunning views of Cathedral Square, the Holy Gates and the Assumption Cathedral.


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But the main thing is that you can see the bells cast in the 17th century by the order of Iona Sysoevich. There are 15 bells in total, the largest of them is Sysoy. And this is the third largest. The "Swan" bell weighing five hundred pounds was cast by Philip Andreev at the same time as "Polyelein" in 1682. He was nicknamed "Swan" for his beautiful flight voice.


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On the left, like a bell "Red". He has a very interesting pattern in the form of angels.


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The second largest bell is a thousand-pound 16 tons "Polyelein", cast six years earlier than "Sysoi", in 1682, by Moscow craftsmen Philip Andreev and his son Cyprian. "Polyeleos" translated from Greek means "many merciful".


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Sysoy is the largest bell, its weight is 32 tons and it was cast by master Flor Terentyev in 1688. Sysoy was cast by order of Metropolitan Jonah Sysoyevich in memory of his father.


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He has a huge tongue.


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There are many unnamed bells. Also, in the fourth span of five bells, three ancient bells have survived: "The Ram", cast by the Moscow master Emelyan Danilov, and two bells. In addition to them, in this span there is also a bell "Golodar" of the 19th century and a small bell "Yasak", designed to give a signal to start ringing.


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If you come to Rostov the Great, be sure to climb the belfry. By the way, climbing is possible in winter. And you can also order a ringing for money, though I don't know how much it costs.


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Now let's go to the Assumption Cathedral. Now it is closed to the public, you can only go to the relics of Leonty Rostovsky. Therefore, I will show you the photos that I took in May 2016.


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The porch was added at the end of the 17th century during the construction of the Rostov Bishops' Court by Ioann Sysoevich.


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Frescoes have been preserved here, but how long they will last is not clear.


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We go to the temple. The scope, height and scale are striking.


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The iconostasis in the Baroque style, made in the 1730s-1740s, has survived.


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In 1659, the painting of the cathedral was started by an artel of masters S. Dmitriev and Iosif Vladimirov. The work dragged on for a long time and in 1669 the Kostroma masters Guriy Nikitin and Sila Savin joined them. Frescoes of the 16th century were discovered in the restoration in the 1950s, and even in the lower part of the 12th century.


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Now the temple has a very depressing feeling. Since it is not heated, the frescoes die because of the cold and humidity. Now they are working on installing a warm floor, but whether this will help is not clear. As an employee of the Rostov Kremlin Museum told us, even in June the temperature in the cathedral does not exceed 8-10 degrees.


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In general, it is surprising that at least something survived.


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It is still very beautiful here.


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The main temple of Rostov the Great is the Assumption Cathedral. The first church on this site was built in 991, and the current temple was built at the beginning of the 16th century. Here the youth Bartholomew, the future Sergius of Radonezh, was baptized, and John of Kronstadt served much later. And the amazingly beautiful Rostov Kremlin is not a Kremlin at all, but the residence of local bishops. A lot was built here by Metropolitan Jonah III Sysoevich, who headed the diocese for almost 39 years (from 1652 to 1690). One building was special and was made according to the original plan of Vladyka Jonah: this is the bell tower (belfry) of the Assumption Cathedral. He ordered to build it in one tier and unusually long - 15 fathoms at a height of 10 (1 fathom \u003d 2.1336 m), and ordered the casting of the bells.

In 1682, master Philip Andreev cast the first, not the largest, bell for the belfry, weighing "only" 500 pounds, called "Swan". Next year - "Polyeleo" weighing 1000 pounds. Lil him the same master.

And in 1688, Flor Terentyev poured the largest bell - 2000 poods named "Sysoy". The diameter of its base is 363 cm, only the weight of the tongue is 75 pounds (1.2 tons), two (!) People swing it, the bell is still famous as one of the most beautiful in sound.

"Golodar" ("Lenten") was poured three times (the last time in 1856), weighing 172 pounds in it, and is so named because it was called in Lent for certain services. The "oldest" bell of the Assumption Cathedral belfry "Baran" (80 poods). In 1654 it was cast in Rostov by the Moscow master Emelyan Danilov, who died in the same year from a pestilence. Apparently, the "Ram" was not cast specifically for the Assumption Belfry, but got there already when the bells were being selected.

The rest of the bells are from 30 pounds and below. Two have names: "Red" and "Goat", the rest are without a name, only two small bells are numbered: the first and the second ... These bells were cast at different times, but mostly date back to the 17th century.

Photo by N. Pastushenko
Photo by N. Pastushenko

Nine large bells were hung on the belfry in one line, four smaller ones - across (now there are 15 bells on the belfry). The idea was ingenious - this is evidenced by the result: Rostov ringing is still considered the most beautiful in Russia, here Ioninsky, Egorievsky, Akimovsky (Joakimovsky), Kalyazinsky ringing were born and preserved to this day. The belfry of the Assumption Cathedral, which is more than 300 years old, is a unique instrument-structure: "Sysoy", "Polyelleus" and "Swan" form a C major triad and the coherence required for this is amazing. "The frequencies of the fundamental tones agree with an error of no more than a percent according to the rules of the chromatic system and not more than a third of a percent - according to the rules of natural: moreover, the highest overtone of" Sysoya "coincides with the basic tone of" Polyeleus ". (Yu. Pukhnachev "The Bell".)

The Rostov ringing was admired by the composer Berlioz and the singer Chaliapin ... The Soviet government banned bell ringing in Rostov. But even during the times of persecution, they sounded on gramophone records and in films. In the form of "concerts of bell music" the ringing was resumed in 1987, and since 1991. accompany the church service. Quite often, admiring applause is heard under the belfry of the Assumption Cathedral: bell-ringers give short concerts for tourists for money. Funds are needed to update one of the 15 bells of the belfry - it cracked.

The Rostov bells miraculously survived during the persecution of the church: “there was an attempt to destroy them too, and at the same time to“ sort out ”the entire Rostov Kremlin. AV Lunacharsky, who was then in Rostov, saved the historical monuments:“ Chop the hands of those who encroach on their integrity, "- he ordered the Ukom workers." (Yu. Pukhnachev "The Bell".)

In fairness, it should be noted that apart from the time of the post-revolutionary persecution of the church, the threat of destruction of the Assumption belfry and its bells arose earlier. During the war with the Swedes, after the failure at Narva in 1700, when most of the Russian artillery was lost, Peter I issued a decree to seize the bells in various cities. "Rostov churches and belfry escaped this fate due to the fact that in 1691 Peter took 15 poods of silver utensils from the metropolitan storerooms and coined them into coins, and from 1692 to 1700 the Rostov metropolis paid 15,000 rubles to the state treasury - the amount at that time This undermined the economic power of the metropolis, and it could no longer carry out any significant construction, but the belfry and bells remained intact " (M.N. Tyunina "Rostov Bells and Ringing").

At the beginning of the 20th century, there were 39 bells in Russia weighing 1,000 pounds or more. Of these, only five have survived to this day: Tsar Bell, Bolshoi Uspensky, "Reut" (Moscow, the Kremlin) and "Polyeleyny", "Sysoy" from the cathedral belfry of Rostov the Great ...

Assumption Cathedral - the former (until 1788) cathedral of the Rostov and Yaroslavl diocese. It currently belongs to the Yaroslavl diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church. Located on Cathedral Square of the Rostov Kremlin. Has a freestanding belfry. Together with the Bishops' Court, the structures of which were built later (at the end of the 17th century) and the Metropolitan Garden, it forms a single architectural ensemble of the Rostov Kremlin, the view of which is especially remarkable from the side of Lake Nero.

Story

The cathedral is located in the historic center of the city. The time of the construction of the first wooden temple on this site is unknown. However, in 1160 it was destroyed by fire. In the next year, 1161, by order of the Grand Duke of Vladimir Andrei Bogolyubsky, the construction of a white-stone building began, which was destroyed by a fire in 1204. The new construction took 17 years. Another strong fire happened in 1408, the vaults and the head of the cathedral collapsed. After which it was rebuilt from white stone.

The modern brick church was built in the years. The sources did not retain the exact date of construction, therefore the researchers suggested different dates. Mikhail Ilyin joined the opinion of Nikolai Voronin, who associated the last significant restructuring with 1587, with the creation of the Rostov Metropolitanate, which was led by Varlaam, and the need to give the central cathedral of the Metropolis a proper look. The currently accepted dating is years. substantiated by Alexander Melnik and confirmed by indirect chronicle sources. Carved white stone elements of previous buildings were used in the decoration of the brick church.

At the end of the 17th century, Metropolitan Iona Sysoyevich, undertaken in the vicinity of the cathedral, on a large-scale construction of the Rostov Bishops' court, affected some alterations in the cathedral. In particular, the chapters took on a new form, an elegant porch was added to the south side of the temple, facing the exit from the Kremlin and serving for the solemn entrance to the temple of the Metropolitan, coming from his residence.

After the transfer of the center of the diocese to Yaroslavl, Rostov's churches fell into disrepair without proper care. Major work on putting them in order was carried out at the beginning of the 19th century.

Many ruling bishops of Rostov-Yaroslavl from the 11th to the 18th centuries, including Iona Sysoevich, the Metropolitan, whose cares created the architectural appearance of Rostov, rest in the cathedral.

Near the southern wall of the cathedral, in the side-altar of St. Leonty of Rostov, under a bushel are the relics of St. Leonty of Rostov, in the south-western corner under a shelter are the relics of St. Theodore of Rostov.

Cathedral architecture

The cathedral, together with the belfry built later, is located on the Cathedral Square adjacent to the Bishops' Court, surrounded by a low brick fence built in the 18th century. Passage through the fence - through the "Holy Gates", (a vaulted passage in a turret consisting of two eights on a quadruple), built in 1754.

The architecture is in many ways similar to the cathedral of the same name in the Moscow Kremlin and is closely related to the traditions of Vladimir-Suzdal architecture. The five-domed temple is dismembered by monumental shoulder blades into three and four spines, which end in keeled zakomars. Narrow windows, similar to loopholes, are located in two tiers, between them in the middle of the height there is an arcature belt, which gives grace and lightness to the monumental structure. The influence of the Moscow architectural school is already evident in this belt.

The chapters are located on high light drums, also decorated with arcatures and horizontal panels. In ancient times, the chapters had a different shape, but during the construction of the Rostov Kremlin they were rebuilt in the style of the entire ensemble. The roof of the building runs along the zakomaras, originally it was made of tiles or plowshares, but now it has been replaced by a tin one on circles, repeating the old shape.

The interior of the cathedral

In the annals, there are indications of some paintings in 1589. In 1659, the painting of the cathedral was started by an artel of masters S. Dmitriev and Iosif Vladimirov. The work dragged on for a long time and in 1669 the Kostroma masters Guriy Nikitin and Sila Savin joined them. A fire in 1671, renovation of the frescoes in 1779 and new painting in 1843 destroyed these works. During the restoration in the 1950s, frescoes of the 17th century were discovered, and in some places behind the iconostasis even older ones of the 16th century.

In the lower part of the walls, which has survived from the white-stone church, Professor N.N.Voronin discovered fragments of a painting of the 12th century.

The iconostasis in the Baroque style, made in the 1730-1740s, has survived. There is a similar iconostasis in the Goritsky Monastery of Pereslavl-Zalessky.

Belfry with the Church of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem

Sysoi's bell on the belfry with the Church of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem on the territory of the architectural ensemble Rostov Kremlin

The four-tiered belfry consists of two adjacent buildings. In one building, with three openings in the fourth tier, most of the bells are located. Another building with a higher fourth tier was built specifically for the Sysoy bell. Each of the four spans has a bulbous head on a deaf drum. The belfry building is distinguished by monumental simplicity and is in good harmony with the building of the cathedral. The ornamentation of the belfry is modest; the spines dissect the walls into four parts in accordance with the openings. However, it is not the vertical but the horizontal lines of the cornices that dominate. The openings in the upper part have keeled ends, repeating the keeled shape of the cathedral's zakomars.

The church of the Lord's Entry into Jerusalem is located in the belfry.