"In 1993, coinciding with the fifth celebration of the Centennial of the Arribada , the old town of Baiona was declared a Site of Historic-Artistic Interest due to the important cultural and patrimonial legacy that the nucleus of the town housed. Beyond its temples, fortifications or stately pazos, one of the greatest treasures that we can find among the streets of this Pontevedra municipality is hidden in the iconic Clock Tower, on whose roof is the oldest bell in Galicia .
This Baionesa bell, dating from the 16th century, is the only one preserved in the entire Galician territory from the Renaissance period. According to local historian Anxo Rodríguez, the piece in question could have been part of the original tower of theMonterreal castle, one of the bastions with the longest history in the Rías Baixas . This hypothesis would come to corroborate the Gothic inscriptions discovered as a result of the restoration of the building ( "this honor was made in the era of one thousand five hundred and five hundred years" ), which place its construction in 1551, since, as According to documents of the time, the bell of the fortress was restored in the same year and was used at that time to give notice in case of attacks by sea.
History of the tower and the bell
On the street of Baiona, the emblematic Clock Tower is located right next to the old town hall, at number 4 of the central Rúa do Reloxo. It is a very simple architectural ensemble, with a three-story square plan ending in a false dome. Its origins date back to the year 1852 , the date on which the building was erected as the city hall and whose dependencies were maintained for almost a century.
On the other hand, it should be noted that the clock mechanism that made time chime for decades in Baiona dates from 1861 and its authorship is attributed to Cándido de Isasmendi from Bilbao. In fact, according to what is known, its creation was paid for at that time by the Baioneses residing abroad. Just a few years ago, the fine-tuning of this ancient machinery allowed the Clock Tower to once again mark the hours. A watchmaker, a resident of Ponteareas and known as José Higinio Suárez, was in charge of said repair.. In addition, the link between the watchmaker and the Baionesa tower runs in the family, since his grandfather, the cabinetmaker José Ramón Suárez, had been responsible for winding and preserving the clock during the bulk of the first half of the 20th century.
Regarding the oldest bell in Galicia, it is important to underline how unusual its conservation over five centuries is . As various expert voices in the field have pointed out, such as the researcher and journalist from Vigo Estanislao Fernández de la Cigoña, the frequency of use of these bells in past times was so high ?it was one of the main means of communication? which is an absolute feat that the piece has reached our days without having been recast and marked with a new date.
The rehabilitation of the Clock Tower
In 2016, the City Council of Baiona awarded the rehabilitation of the Clock Tower to the architecture and technical consultancy studio Arquetipos!, based in Vigo and Santiago de Compostela and whose activity is carried out mainly in the Galician Atlantic axis. Before its development, the interior of the building did not even keep the original staircase, which, it is assumed, would have been discarded due to its poor condition. In any case, a staircase built at different times with half-ruined pine wood could be appreciated. For its part, both the clock machinery and the pendulum were kept leaning on two eucalyptus beams.
The project carried out by Arquetipos! It proposed, among other things, a cleanup of the image of the main façade as well as the creation of a new internal staircase that would respect the sections of the original. On the upper floors, the railings are more transparent and the vertical areas of the steps also disappear, allowing light to enter the upper windows to reach the entire interior of the tower. With the aim of adding light to the ground floor as well, the main entrance has an original design with a window in the door
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