Bell tower

A bell tower (also belfry or campanile) is a tower which contains one or more bells, or which is designed to hold bells, even if it has none. They are usually built at a height that allows the sound to be heard at some distance.^[1]

There are different ways to make the bells in a bell tower ring. In many cases, the bell is rung by pulling on a rope that is joined to the bell, making it swing on a hinge and the clapper hit the bell. Another way is to use a keyboard called a carillon. Sometimes, the bells are controlled by a clock mechanism or a computer. This lets them ring at certain times without the need for a human to do it.

1. ↑ Russell Sturgis; Francis A. Davis, Sturgis' Illustrated Dictionary of Architecture and Building: An Unabridged Reprint of the 1901-2 Edition, Vol. I, (Newburyport: Dover Publications, 2013), p. 287