MAASTRICHT - STS : NETHERLANDS

*Location:

   Northwest tower
   Sint Servaaskerk (St. Gervase Church)
   Vrijthof at Het Vagevuur
   Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands
   LL: N 50.84880, E 5.68775
*Original location (before enlargement):
   South tower of the choir
Site locator map
City locator maps and gazetteer page

*Carillonist:

   Frank Steijns, stadsbeiaardier
   E: info@franksteijns.com
*Past carillonneur
   1952-97 Mathieu Steijns

*Contact:

   Stichting Carillons Maastricht
   Anjoulaan 23
   NL-6213 CT  Maastricht
   T: 043/325 86 34

*Schedule:

   (unknown)

*Remarks:

   Ancient carillon, hung in central
   tower, was destroyed by fire in 1955;
   that tower was not rebuilt.  Various
   other bells hang in 3 other towers of
   the same church.  The van Trier chime
   of 1555 and the A.J. van den Gheyn
   carillon of 1770 hung in the central
   tower of the West Building.

*Technical data:

   Traditional carillon of 59 bells
   Pitch of heaviest bell is C  in the middle octave
   Transposition is nil (concert pitch)
   Keyboard range:     C C   /    ----  
   There are two missing bass semitones
   The presence or absence of a practice console is unknown
   The instrument was enlarged in 1985
     with bells made by Eijsbouts   
   Prior history:
     In 1975, the present instrument was begun with 47 bells
       by Eijsbouts   
       Pitch of heaviest bell was C  in the treble octave
       Transposition was up one octave
     In 1767, the previous instrument was enlarged to 40 bells
       by vandenGheyn 
       (0 bells remain from that work.)
       Pitch of heaviest bell was F  in the middle octave
     In 1555, the instrument was begun with 19 bells
       by the maker cited in Remarks above
       (0 bells remain from that work.)
       Pitch of heaviest bell was unknown
   No auxiliary mechanisms known
   Tower details not available
   Year of latest technical information source is 1992
*Links:

The English Wikipedia article about the basilica says nothing about the bells, but does have various photos.

The Dutch Wikipedia article about the building has a section about the bells.  Especially notable is the fact that the Eijsbouts carillon of 1975 originally hung in one of the choir towers, but in a restoration of the church in 1983 it was moved to the north tower of the western facade and enlarged to its present size.

Where the initial phase of this work lies in the sequence of output of miscellaneous bellfoundries, in this region and in the world.
Where the second phase of this work lies in the sequence of output of the Vanden Gheyn bellfoundry, in this region and in the world.
Where the third phase of this work lies in the sequence of output of the Eijsbouts bellfoundry, in this region and in the world.
Where the final phase of this work lies in the sequence of output of the Eijsbouts bellfoundry, in this region and in the world.

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

Index to all traditional carillons in Netherlands.

Index to all tower bell instruments in NL/Limburg.

*Status:
   This page was built from the database on  5-Nov-23
   based on textual data last updated on 2020/04/15
   and on technical data last updated on 2019/04/02
*Photos:

(none available)

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