Yours truly is certainly not the first visitor to Dubrovnik to recognize the charm of its bells.
Indeed, this video can give you an idea of their captivating sound, heavenly music to many who are freed of a Mediterranean cruise ships for a few hours.
I am still trying to pinpoint the exact location of the bells, although I'm quite sure part of ringing emanates from the Dominican monastery and St. Blaise, both a walk away from where I am currently staying for two weeks in old-town Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik natives/aficionados can perhaps assist me in providing this information.
What is most striking to me is that, so far as I can tell, the bells do not all begin at the same time. There is a slight interruption between each bell(s) at different locations. This seems timed in such a way that no bells will interrupt other bells, even if clockwork-time-precision is slightly sacrificed in such a harmonious bell time-sharing.
After less than a week in this ancient Adriatic city, which has survived control by empires and nation-states (but will it survive tourists such as myself, the latest invasion?), I much prefer to be woken by the bells at 5:00 AM than by my alarm clock.
The sound of the bells, though certainly of a certain loudness, is subtle, and is far more agreeable to the ear than the screeching of an electronic device.
And the bells, God bless 'em, ring every quarter of an hour, reminding one, as they should, of one's mortality -- or, to sound less metaphysical, of my often unstoppable ability to procrastinate, including the demanding, down-to-earth art of getting out of bed.
Image from
Posted by John Brown at 9:06 AM
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