Bell Tower

This bell tower is joined to the Sant Climent de Taüll church, which is tucked away not far from the village of Taüll located in the Boí Valley in Catalonia. The church was consecrated on December 10, 1123. It was built along the outlines of a basilica with three naves terminating in three semi-circular apses. Its timber roof—which may seem surprising considering the vault was already common practice at the time—undoubtedly had to do with the budgetary choices of a rural community that sought to finance an impressive series of frescoes, now in conservation at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona.

The bell tower is isolated on the exterior of the church, flanking the south side of the aisle at the height of the apse. It is a square bell tower with thick walls and an opening on the north side that makes for direct communication with the south nave of the edifice. Svelte and tapering in form , the tower rises up over five floors, the four upper floors emerging above the church itself. Its base and its covering are of a pyramidal structure. This type of bell tower can be seen throughout Catalonia and dates back to the 11th century. Hence, we can find such tapering bell towers at Santa Coloma d’Andorre and Erill-la-Val. Those that are built on a square or rectilinear plan tend to be more robust and more imposing in size, such as the towers in Ripoll, Cuxa and Gerona. It is the tapering form of the bell tower of Sant Climent of Taüll, however, that distinguishes it from the rest, as well as its ornamentation. While all bell towers of this type tend to have frescoes, this one also has traces of red paint forming checkers and garlands, as well as incrustations of ceramics.

The angles of the tower have large flat buttress-columns (pilasters) connected to the upper part, on each level, by five arches, each with small three-arch mouldings surmounted by a course of stones arranged in a serrated pattern. The same ornamentation of “Lombardi bands” can be seen on the apses, but disposed in a slightly different style. This repetitive structure delimits and marks the different levels of the bell tower of Taüll. The openings, present on all sides of each floor (except for the base), become increasingly larger the higher they go, giving the impression of a bell tower that is thinner and more refined towards the top. There are twin windows, except on the first floor, lit by a single opening, and on the third floor the windows are triple. The windows are divided by a small column surmounted by a prismatic-shaped abacus.  

This type of bell tower is characteristic of the religious architecture of the western Mediterranean. Puig i Cadafalch has identified an undisputable Lombardi influence in Catalan churches. Italy, after all, was the place where these bell towers were first erected and isolated from the edifice itself. Hence we come across bell towers at the San Abondio of Como, the Sant’Ambrogio of Milan, the abbey of Pomposa or again the cathedrals of Parma and Modena, all of which were built during the 11th century. This architectural type began to develop in Catalonia in the early 11th century before it took on its own regional specificities, truly coming into its own in the course of the 12th century, and especially in the Boí Valley in Sant Climent de Taüll.

This bell tower could also make us think of the minarets of mosques. None of these ties, however, have been confirmed, although they are helpful for establishing visual points of reference and in pointing to their strong symbolic presence.

Can we safely say, therefore, that there is a Muslim influence when it comes to the bell tower of Sant Climent de Taüll? The only certitude after all is that minurets and bell towers are all derived from the same source, namely Syrian bell towers. The bell tower of Sant Climent de Taüll is the accomplishment of the multiple exchanges so particular to the regions of the Mediterranean, where we detect both Italian and Oriental influences.