The ringing of the bell has been part of the sound and cultural landscape of the Valencians since the Christian conquest. It is said that King James I himself carried small bells in his luggage, and the poet Ibn-Al-Abbar already writes, a few years after the incorporation of the Kingdom of Valencia into European Christian culture, that «the sound of bells has replaced the voice he called in prayer». Regarding these small bells, everything points to the fact that one of the signal bells or “bell of the Dead” of the Cathedral of Valencia, dated in the early thirteenth century and restored a few years ago, may be one of these medieval bells.

Over the centuries, the voices of the bells have been the voice of the community, the most immediate and effective means of expression and communication at the service of all, the sound reference that served to inform and coordinate an entire local community.

The bells build collective time, not only through clocks, but also through the various touches, which mark the passage of the day, the week, the year and life.

They mark spaces of festivities or mourning, and indicate with their touches the relevance of certain people, either at the time of their death, or in other extraordinary events.

That is why bells reach beyond religious meaning, without forgetting it, since they become the voice of a community, its most intuitive and emotional sound symbol. The Valencian bell ringers have recovered in recent years more than 300 manual rings of Bells.