Agnone and the Marinelli Foundry: Where the World's Bells Are Born

There is something moving in the fact that the bells of the cathedral of Buenos Aires, the Abbey of Montecassino, and the Sanctuary of Pompeii were all born in the same workshop in a town of five thousand souls on the Molisan Apennines. Agnone, in the upper Verrino Valley at 830 metres, holds one of the most extraordinary craft continuities in Europe: the Pontifical Marinelli Bell Foundry.

A thousand years of fire and bronze

The first historical traces of the foundry date back to the year 1000, a period when the spread of Catholicism demanded bells for every new church. The Marinelli name appears in documents from 1339, when the bell-founder Nicodemo Marinelli — known as "Campanarus" — signed his first official castings. Today the family is in its 27th generation: a world record recognised as the oldest family craft business in Italy. The foundry has held the title of "Pontifical" since 1924, when Pope Pius XI honoured it with the apostolic coat of arms.

Inside the foundry

A visit to the foundry — open to the public year-round, with paid admission — is a sensory experience hard to describe. You see the moulds of clay and sand worked by hand, you understand how molten bronze (an alloy of copper and tin in precise proportions) is poured into the moulds, you observe the inscriptions and bas-reliefs engraved on the still-fresh bells. Annexed to the foundry is the Bell Museum, with historic specimens, antique tools, and documents that recount eight centuries of history.

Agnone and its historic centre

Beyond the foundry, Agnone deserves a stroll through its medieval centre: the main street is flanked by noble palaces from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the churches hold art of considerable quality. The Christmas market held each year is one of the most authentic in Molise. Local cuisine features pasta al forno with kid-goat ragu and pampanella, a spiced pork preparation. The bed-and-breakfast offering has grown in recent years.