MAFRA - N : PORTUGAL

*Location:

   Lower belfry, north tower
   Palace
   Mafra, Lisboa, Portugal
   LL: N 38.93711, W 9.32707 z18

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*Contact:

   (unknown)

*Remarks:

   Bells by Nicolas Levache (Antwerp or
   Liege), with four assorted others,
   including 1 Witlockx from south tower,
   where it had been replaced by a Felix
   vanAerschodt bell in 1928.  Original
   keyboard now in the museum.
   Also 6 swinging bells in middle belfry
   and 3 clock bells in upper belfry.

*Technical data:

   Carillon-sized instrument (without any workable playing mechanism) of 45 bells
   Pitch of heaviest bell (excluding sub-bourdon) is A# in the bass octave
   Transposition is nil (concert pitch)
   Keyboard range: F#G#A#E   /    ----  
   There are no missing bass semitones
   The whole instrument was installed in 1730
     by the maker cited in Remarks above
   Year of latest technical information source is 1994

*Links:

Description of the palace, with photos

Waymarking page, with 2 photos of the building

Set of photos of the Convent of Mafra, with several different perspectives of the bell towers.

Where this work lies in the sequence of output of miscellaneous bellfoundries, in this region and in the world.

Where the bass bell of this carillon ranks among all great bells in Europe.

NOTE:  This instrument is indexed as "traditional", even though it is unplayable, because that was the last functional method of operation.

Ranking among all European traditional carillons by pitch (weight).
Ranking among all European traditional carillons by size (number of bells).
Ranking among all European traditional carillons by year of completion.

Index to all traditional carillons in Portugal.

Index to all tower bell instruments in Portugal.

*Status:

   This page was built from the database on 10-Feb-10
   based on textual data last updated on 2010/01/26
   and on technical data last updated on 1996/07/25

Explanations of page format and keyboard range are available.

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