*Location:

   Collégiale Saint-Nicolas
   Place du Général Leclerc (D951)
   Avesnes-sur-Helpe, Nord, France
   LL: N 50.12205, E 3.93254

Site locator map
City locator maps and gazetteer page

*Carillonist:

   Patrice Nimal
   E: pnimal /@/ orange DOTfr

   1991-?? Jean Michel Piron
   19??-91 Eugene de Kerle

*Contact:

   (unknown)

*Schedule:

   Melody from drum at quarter-hours

*Remarks:

   5 van den Gheyn bells were destroyed by
   war in 1917.  Wauthy of Douai added
   4 in 1924; totally destroyed WW II
   (on 2 Sep.1944, during liberation).
   Replacement also cited as 1948.

*Technical data:

   Traditional carillon of 48 bells
   Pitch of heaviest bell (excluding sub-bourdon) is D  in the middle octave
   Keyboard range:     C C 47/(G )C G   
   Transposition is up  2 semitone(s), i.e., from C to D 
   There are two missing bass semitones
   The presence or absence of a practice console is unknown
   The whole instrument was installed in 1956
     with bells made by Paccard          
   Prior history:
     In 1924, the instrument was enlarged to 35 bells
       by Wauthy          
       (0 bells remain from that work.)
       Pitch of heaviest bell was unknown
     In 1767, the instrument was begun with 36 bells
       by vandenGheyn     
       (0 bells remain from that work.)
   Auxiliary mechanisms: M     
   Tower details not available
   Year of latest technical information source is 2024

The GCF page about this carillon has photos and technical details.

The French Wikipedia article about the building has a photo of the tower and mentions it in the text.

Photos of the building

The ARPAC Website (archived 2019) presents much more detail than we can here, though it is all in French.

Where the initial phase of this work lies in the sequence of output of the Van den Gheyn bellfoundry, in this region and in the world.
Where the second phase of this work lies in the sequence of output of the Wauthy bellfoundry, in this region and in the world.
Where the final phase of this work lies in the sequence of output of the Paccard bellfoundry, in this region and in the world.

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

Index to all traditional carillons in France.

Index to all tower bell instruments in France/Nord.

   This page was built from the database on 25-Aug-25
   based on textual data last updated on 2025/08/18
   and on technical data last updated on 2024/09/06