TIME CAPSULE PLACED IN SAN BARTOLOMÉ CHURCH BELL TOWER
The contents included a signed certificate, press clippings, photographs and a Xàbia pin.
The Parish of San Bartolomé has placed a time capsule in one of the walls of the bell tower of the church in the heart of the historic centre so that future generations will be able to discover what happened in 2023-24 when the parish and residents got together to promote the restoration of the three bells – Bertomeua, Sebastiana and Victoria – and installation of the new bell, María del Perpetuo Socorro.
The contents of the time capsule included a certificate signed by the Archbishop of Valencia, Enrique Benavent, the parish priest, Juan Antonio Navarro, and the mayor Rosa Cardona on the day that the four bells received their blessing, some press clippings, a selection of images from the special weekend before the bells were lifted into the bell tower, an image of the perpetual mayor of Xàbia (Jesús Nazareno) and an official pin of the Ayuntamiento de Xàbia. The capsul was placed inside a space in the wall and sealed with a special stone engraved with a cross.
The parish priest explained that the restoration of the church bells “unites us with our past, with our present and with the future”. He said that the time capsule is “a way of sending a message to the Xàbia of the future, that we hope to have lived up to what we have inherited, that we have cared for it, protected it, and left it in a better state as much as possible”.
