Η Κωδωνοποιία στο Άγιον Όρος

The Bell-Making on Mount Athos The Ottoman authority forbade the Christians to ring bells. This ban was lifted for all Christians in the empire in 1856 with the publication of the Hatt-i Humayun. However, it seems that, formally or implicitly, the ban on bellringing never applied to Mount Athos, as it enjoyed special status and privileges. This is also revealed by the existence of bells dating back much earlier than 1856. It seems that the absence of Muslim inhabitants - apart from the administration's employees - allowed the Athonite monasteries to continue their worship habits unhindered. Thus, bell-makers, mainly from the Christian-ruled regions, arrived on the Athonite peninsula and set up their workshops there in response to the demand for their products. Today, on the Athos peninsula there are at least nineteen bells made by bellmakers who worked on site. We are sure that many more were made, which were either destroyed or do not bear inscriptions. Of the nineteen “Athonite” bells, fifteen bear the signatures of four bellmakers who worked on Athos in the 18th and 19th centuries. The older bells were cast in 1781 by Charalambis Mikeletis. He put his name on three bells, all made in the same year. The next bell maker appears on Mount Athos after Hatt-i Humayun. This is Ioannis Nikolaou, who is undoubtedly the most prolific bell maker of Athos, as he worked on Mount Athos from 1862 to 1891. Apostolos Vourgaris was active on Mount Athos during the same period. He signed only one bell, which is in the monastery of Koutloumousiou. A few years later, another bell maker, Michailos Ioannou, leaves his signature on a bell he builds for the Dionysiou Monastery Certainly, these craftsmen also made unsigned works, while others were not interested in leaving their names on their products.