Campanile - Definition and Overview

A campanile (pronounced cam-pa-nee-lay) is, especially in Italy, a free-standing bell-tower (Italian campana, 'bell') adjacent to a church or cathedral.

The most famous Campanile is probably the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Other notable campaniles include St Mark's Campanile in Venice's St Mark's Square.

Venice's Campanile

At the beginning of the nineteen eighties the theme Campanile was revised by H. R. Hiegel and Florian Mausbach. After a spectacular design by architect H.R. Hiegel dating from the year 1983, in 1990 Helmut Jahn built the Frankfurt Messeturm.

Modern campaniles often contain carillons, a musical instrument traditionally comprised of large bells which are sounded by cables, chains, or cords connected to a keyboard. These can be found at some college and university campuses. In modern construction, rather than using heavy bells the sound may be produced by the striking of small metal rods whose vibrations are amplified electronically and sounded through loudspeakers.

See also

• Sather Tower, "The Campanile" of the University of California, Berkeley
• ISU notables#Campanile, the campanile and carillion at Iowa State University

External links

• H.R. Hiegel's design (http://www.hiegel.de/campanile.html)
• Sather Tower at University of California, Berkeley (http://www.berkeley.edu/visitors/campanile.html)
• The Campanile at Berkeley (http://csua.berkeley.edu/~tobin/wiki/moin.cgi/Campanile) from the UC Berkeley Wiki
• An article from the University of Alabama Crimson White about the day-to-day operation of the schools Campanile (http://www.cw.ua.edu/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/04/26/408ca0f09d08c)