A unique opportunity to climb the medieval tower

The sign said :" climbing the tower is at your own risk". I soon found out why. These towers are clearly not meant for wandering visitors !
Narrow spiral staircase first, and then long steep wobbling ladders. Crawling through hatches, dust and bird droppings.
But it certainly was worth it !
The body of this church is gothic, mid 15th century. But the the tower is older. The first three levels date before 1200, came with an earlier smaller church.
The tower was originally flat topped, no spire. Built like a fortress, a lookout and a refuge for the citizens.

Every year in September, there's Monument Day. When all across the Netherlands thousands of places normally closed to the public can be visited.
I decided on the church towers in Weesp. The old medieval one first, and later the 19th century catholic church.
From up there in the old church, a nice view over the centre. Could see my own house as well. And the wide open green polders around.
Green for now, because the green meadows you see on the picture below are destined to be swallowed by urban development in a few years ...

Up in the tower is the carillon. An ancient musical instrument popular all over Holland, Belgium and the north of France, this being in fact the late medieval Netherlands.
The bells play a different tune automatically every 15 minutes, to mark the hour and the time.

For concerts, there's the keyboard. Played on special occasions, and every Tuesday, market day, a carillon concert of an hour.
If you want to know what it looks and sounds like, watch this clip.
In that video, you'll notice that with the interior shots, you hardly hear the bells at all. That is absolutely real. When you're inside the tower and the 15 minutes tunes are automatically played, the rattling and squeaking of the antique machinery overrules everything else.

The big bells were used in medieval times to warn and notify of fires, storms or enemy attacks. They still sound for service, wedding and funeral.
From inside the tower you can have a peek into the long tunnel-like space between the ceiling of the church and the roof. Impressive timber construction.

For a nice cut-out drawing of the tower interior and design, you can download this pdf-file.

The centre of Weesp, with the old church, on this lovely day in September 2011.

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