The Notre-Dame Saint-Pantaléon collegiate church in Turenne, under restoration since 2022, found its central bell after six months of absence, this Wednesday, April 17.
“We had celebrations but we couldn’t have any bells ringing,” sighs Hélène Crespel, her camera in hand. Wednesday April 17, 2024, the deputy town hall of Turenne still had a little smile on her lips.
This is because the central bell of the Notre-Dame Saint-Pantaléon collegiate church, under restoration since October near Toulouse, has just found its place. A restoration which is part of the extensive work undertaken since 2022 within the collegiate church, classified as a historic monument.
Nearly 1,500 kg
The workers went about it carefully. In their hands, a bell, recast for the last time just a hundred years ago. And putting it back in its bell tower is not an easy thing. The object must be hoisted, with a crane, to nearly 15 meters in height. A manipulation all the more complex as the bell weighs between 1,300 and 1,500 kg and the opening is narrow.
Tourists and Turennois, there are around ten onlookers who came to follow the operation. After all, “this is the life of our villages,” explains a resident, who closely observes the process. And then, the bells are part of the history of the town. Raymond, born in Turenne, knows a slew of anecdotes about the church and its bells. Like that of this gentleman who came to ring them “when there was thunder because their noise would keep the storm away.”
A look back at a year of work at the collegiate church of Turenne (Corrèze)
New phase for college
Text: Camille Gagne Chabrol
Photos: Fabrice Combe
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