After a series of noisy protests involving pots and pans, residents of a small village Catalan Near town Barcelona They won in their efforts to eliminate the night silence imposed on the town to appease tourists.
After residents realized that the bells in the church of Santa Maria del Steures had stopped ringing at night, at the end of last month, the population of Bagnoles of 19,600 people began to crackle. A protest was called hastily. “We ask for the bell to ring again for 24 hours and a quarter of an hour,” Read the call to action posted online.
When the residents sought an explanation for the sudden silence, the principal of the church pointed to the tourist apartment across the street. The principal said that the owner of the apartment had complained about the bells because several tourists complained that the constant bells kept them awake at night.
The principal Ramon Pijoan said that he had checked with the city officials and they said there was no regulation on ringing the bell. “After that man insisted–because I didn’t want to fight–I decided to stop ringing the bell at night,” Pijoan Tell the newspaper El Periodico.
This decision made some residents angry. “This is tradition. I can’t sleep without the bell,” one told Antena 3 Broadcasting Company. Others are targeting tourists. “They need to endure what they have, no matter where they go,” one of them said. “They should be notified in advance that there is a church here and the bell is ringing.”
In the latest protest on Tuesday, 200 residents walked noisily past the simple church, which has been stable in the town since the 10th century.
The next day, the election campaign achieved a certain degree of victory. Mayor Miquel Noguer told local radio that from Thursday, the church bell will ring again, and the municipality is exploring possible compromises, such as reducing the bell at night. volume.
But this idea has been rejected by the neighborhood association behind the protest. “We think this is completely unnecessary expenses, and the funds can be used for more urgent causes,” It said in a statement.
Although noisy tourists Conflicts often With the resident on the opposite side SpainThis is not the first time that the Catalan municipal government has fallen into a seemingly opposite battle.
In 2016, the bell of Girona Cathedral, 20 miles from Banyoles, was silent for 49 nights after complaining that the bell disturbed guests at a hotel in the city. After residents protested, the case ended in court. However, the matter was resolved after the cathedral and the hotel reached an agreement in which the hotel helped fund the cost of reducing the volume of the bell to 50 decibels.
