How is it not unconstitutional to make church bells sound so loud for so long?

Previously discussed at great length: Why do the church bells ring out at 7 o'clock?.

The preamble of the Federal Constitution starts with an invocation of God. Churches and their bells are therefore constitutional and deeply rooted in Swiss traditions, as unfortunate as it is, and all appeals to ensure that efforts to reduce noise pollution do not discriminate between the decibels produced by cars, glass bottles thrown in containers and holy buildings will fall on deaf ears, as it were.

"Glocken der heimat "lovely sound

This rings a bell...

Noise rule in Switzerland
Whats with the bells?
Cannons in the morning

Because if it was really quiet and over in a flash, church-goers would think someone had dropped a bin lid instead and would miss their weekly sermon.

Sensational first post.

Now Esmeralda be nice to a newby, he might get the hump, and you don't want to start a ding dong..... do you

My girlfriend lives in a quaint little village called La Neuveville, near Neuchatel. I visit quite regularly and she is keen on me moving in, however, the church bells in this 17th century idle ring on the hour, every hour, 24/7!! Not only do they ring on the hour, for some strange reason, they sound the time twice!! And i hate it!!
Now in acountry where the old bill are out at the drop of a hat after the hour of 10pm, i`m stumped as to how religion seems to be able to get away with this and are untouchable.
Does anyone else live where this happens or have a view on why this is acceptable in this day and age? Is there a law allowing it?
And who the hell needs to know the time at 2am, 3am etc etc??

You rang ?

That's the only way Swiss people living in quaint little villages found to make you leave the country....


Just accept the local tradition. And church bells, what a beautiful sound.






it's, of course, a bit ironic.....

This gonna be interesting I used to live close to it and every one ells in Switzerland ,Good reason to emigrate to Canada

You obviously are blessed with living at least 1km from a church.
There is one just above our apartment, and trust me, as beautiful and charming it may seem-soon, very soon it is nothing but boring and just plain loud!

I understand tradition, that is fine, but it doesn´t take away the fact that you are forced to listen to the same old sound, every 15min..

You will get use to it in few months. I had the same experience.

The Church of my village is actually at 370 meters of my house and bells every 30 mns.

Now I agree, if you don't like this sound, it can be very irritating.

I hope you don't have cows with their bells around....

I second Lana K.
The clocks in Fribourg sound every 15mins (not a quaint little village, but in the town itself)...but this is compounded by the fact that the two ones around my apartment are out of sync by just under 5mins....so just long enough that one starts ringing as soon as the other one has finished. So 10mins to enjoy some silence in between. And they ring out at least two times per day..

But take some comfort in the fact that you get used to it, and after a while really don't notice them at all - although perhaps not if they are just above the apartment!!

haha, the cow bells was another question i was gonna ask

how do the cows sleep!!!

Don't worry, The federation has now declared noise to be one of the top environmental problems and is looking into further measures.

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/multimed...l?cid=28609780

I think the church bells sound nice, gives the country a nice atmosphere. Be glad it's not Mosques and the Islamic call to prayer. Talk about simulating the sounds of hell.

I hate the church bells with a vehemence. I hated them before arriving here - back in Paris, the church there used to go crazy at 10h45 at the weekend (and I used to go crazy then as well - especially if it was the bells that woke me up - dreaming up plans for blowing the damned thing up to kingdom come...).

Church bells are something else here though. Not convinced it's something I reckon I'll get used to (let alone appreciate), but I must admit I think I notice them less now. That or I'm going deaf.

Anyway, just wanted to add my name to the list of church bell haters. Oh and a few flats we were considering had to go immediately when I realised how close they were to the church and the racket the bells made from that distance.