Every year again! Christmas is traditionally rung in Frankfurt on Christmas Eve with the Great City Bell Ringing. The unique concert of the bells of the inner city churches will finally ring out again this year on Christmas Eve, Saturday, December 24, from 5 to 5:30 p.m. in the city center. In addition, the bell composition can be listened to online, as in the past two years: On the city of Frankfurt's website, a corresponding audio file will be released over the Christmas weekend at frankfurt.de/frankfurt-discover-and-experience. And who still needs a gift idea: The Great City Bells are also available on CD.
The bell concert regularly attracts many Frankfurt residents and visitors to a walk through the city center. This is because it only rings out four times a year: in addition to Christmas Eve, on the Saturdays before the first Advent, before Easter and before Whitsun. But it is precisely on Christmas Eve that the bells' concert has a very special charm, when many people gather on the Römerberg to listen to the atmospheric sounds together before the gifts are distributed. It is even rumored that many a lonely heart has already found together here - a beautiful performance.
The composition of the half-hour concert involves ten churches with their total of 50 bells. The sound pattern was compiled by Mainz bell expert Professor Paul Smets in 1954.
"The Great City Ringing is something extraordinary," says City Treasurer Bastian Bergerhoff, the department head responsible for the dotation churches. "The bell concert provides a shared experience for many, even in difficult times, as well as a sign of hope and confidence." Popular locations to listen include the Hauptwache, Liebfrauenberg, Paulsplatz, Römerberg and the Eiserne Steg. However, there is no single place where you can best hear the Great City Ringing: to actively experience it, a tour of the city center is a great way to do so.
