Campanario

THE CAMPANARIO is 46 feet high and is very typical of Spanish architecture. It is basically a wall adjoining a church with niches for holding bells. The crown-topped bell on the lower right is named Ave Purisima (Immaculate Mary). It weighs 805 pounds and was cast in 1802. A crown-topped (Conan) bell was usually supplied by the Spanish King and cast in the royal foundry in Barcelona at the King’s expense or made in a country under Spanish rule. Ave Maria Purisima was in the vestibule of St. Joseph’s Church and was re-hung in the Campanario after the reconstruction of the mission in 1931.

The Bell on the lower left is called Mater Dolorosa – our Lady of Sorrows. It weighs 1200 pounds and was recast by the Standard Iron Works of San Diego in 1894 from fragments of original mission bells that were found in Old Town San Diego.

In mission days, the bells were rung with different intonations – rings joyously  to celebrate happy occasions and peals solemnly for sad occasions.

The five bells are only rung in unison once a year to commemorate the founding of the mission, July 16, 1769.