Over 200 years ago, Lord Byron allegedly dismissed Malta as the island of “yells, bells and smells”.

I cannot vouch for how many bells disturbed his sensitive muse during his two visits to our homeland but, as of today, more than 500 bronze resonances can boom all at once over this tiny sliver of rock, mostly, though not exclusively, from high church belfries.

Installing the new bells in Stella Maris church, Sliema, 1937

In Christian countries, the several uses of bells determined their popularity, their voice symbolising the harmonies of collective prayer – l-Ave Maria, il-Paternoster, l-Angelus, il-mota tal-anġli, tal-vjatku, tal-mejtin or tat-trapass.

Watches were inexistent or rare

But the church belfry performed another indispensable practical function. When clocks and watches were inexistent or extremely rare, only the pealing of bells at prearranged intervals scanned the passage of time and gave people a sense of temporal orientation.

Standing proudly next to the new bell for Mqabba parish church.

1946, a new bell for Lija parish church

A 1949 postcard of a bell for the Attard parish church

Malta still treasures a 1370 bell, the Petronilla from the old Mdina cathedral. The Order had its own busy foundry and, up to the death of Ġulju Cauchi in 1904, the island still cast some of its bells. Since then, churches have imported them from Italy, the UK and France.

Bells have consistently found themselves in one-off Malta postcards. The majority just show the new bells, probably distributed to benefactors as souvenirs or by the foundry as promotion.

But other cards document ceremonies in which the bells were the centres of attraction.

‘Photoshopped’ postcard of the hoisting of two bells in Luqa in 1928.

In a rare 1928 image of the hoisting of two bells in St Andrew’s parish church of Luqa, the photographer adroitly doctored the negatives to make it appear as if the two bells were raised simultaneously.

1932 festivities in Birkirkara on the occasion of the blessing of the new bells.

Blessing of the new set of bells for Mellieħa in 1925

Blessing three new bells for the Marsaxlokk parish church, 1934

1937 postcard of the new five-bell set for Stella Maris church, Sliema

Other cards record festivities – 1901 and 1932 in Birkirkara, 1930 in Mellieħa, 1934 in Marsaxlokk and 1937 in Sliema – when the villagers celebrated the blessing of new bells.

All images from the author’s collections.

Birkirkara 1931 – commemorative postcard

Stella Maris, Sliema, 1937 postcard

Postcard of the 1925 bell for Msida

The four new bells for Balzan, in a 1925 French postcard