During the bell walk through Cologne's old town as part of the 4th European Bell Day/30th Colloquium on Bell Studies in May 2023, the ringing of the Basilica of St. Aposteln was also on the program. Unfortunately, the small inner courtyard at the Josef-Könn-Aula in the southeast was not available for recordings due to construction work, and the area around the church was far too busy at lunchtime for trouble-free recordings. Therefore, a replacement will be offered here with older recordings. The Apostles' Ringing is already represented many times on YouTube, but almost exclusively in interior recordings of very different quality. The solo ringing of the large bell makes its first official appearance in the tower, and the west tower plenum begins briefly here with the historic monastery ringing. A first, modest church on the current site was perhaps consecrated as early as 872, and has belonged to the St. Ursula Abbey since 980. The canonry founded by Archbishop Pilgrim (1021-1036) at St. Aposteln required a larger church building, the "Pilgrimbau", which is still rudimentarily preserved today. At that time, St. Aposteln was still beyond the Roman city fortifications, and the "Westerrich" urban area, which included the churches of St. Mauritius and St. Aposteln, was not incorporated into the core area of ​​Cologne until 1106 with the construction of new fortifications. In the middle of the 12th century, the west choir was built over with the large main tower, and the cloverleaf choir, which today dominates the view from Neumarkt, was begun after 1200, which shifted the liturgical focus from the west to the east. The monastery buildings, which were demolished by 1827, were built on the south side of the church. As in St. Kunibert, the parish shared the church with the monastery; the parish altar was initially a cross altar in front of the east choir, and from 1490 the St. Catherine's altar in the northeast apse. After secularization, the basilica became the property of the parish - and gradually fell into disrepair. After renovation work in 1822-28, the church was extensively restored in a neo-Romanesque style between 1872 and 1891. To this day, despite severe destruction in World War II, the building is still visually influenced by the work of that period. Reconstruction according to plans by cathedral master builder Willy Weyres took place in several stages until 1957/66/75. Since 1965, St. Aposteln has been called a "Basilica minor" and the parish is now part of the Cologne-Mitte pastoral district. Nothing is known about early medieval bells in St. Aposteln. Fortunately, however, the three-part bell cast in 1507 and attributed to Johann von Andernach has (almost) survived to this day. The parish bell/Adauctus bell a' from 1507, which formerly hung in a ridge turret in front of the crossing, came to the church of St. Amandus in Cologne-Rheinkassel during the secularization, where it is still located today: • Rheinkassel (D), Catholic Church of St.Aman... The parish, as the new owner of the church, then used the monastery bell for its services. The 3 bells were supplemented in 1844 by a ges' by Christian Claren, Sieglar. This bell was probably lost in the First World War. As POETTGEN proves, the Mary bell is a facsimile cast by the Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock foundry in Gescher from 1938, as a replacement for the cracked bell from 1507. In 1927, the collection was supplemented by 2 bells, also from the foundry in Gescher. The large Görres bell b° was added as an instrument of outstanding sound of its time. Donated by the Görreshaus in Cologne, it commemorates Joseph von Görres (1776-1848), publicist and promoter of political Catholicism. This bell survived the bombing raids on the tower of St. Aposteln and could no longer be taken for disposal due to the damage for safety reasons. It remained in this condition until 2005. On the occasion of the 20th World Youth Day in Cologne, the large bell "John Paul II", commonly known as the World Youth Day bell, was again cast in Gescher for St. Aposteln and consecrated by Pope Benedict XVI on August 20, 2005. After being installed on the World Youth Day site, the bell was placed in the completely new wooden bell frame in the Aposteln tower. The bell was cast with a tuning reserve and its tone was clearly too high when cast. However, due to its excellent properties, no tone correction was carried out. She also provides an excellent foundation for the old ensemble due to her pitch, and with this ensemble St. Aposteln has been given a truly distinctive voice. Ringing data (according to source 1): Johannes Paul II. g° -7, 2180 mm, 6700 kg (2005) Görres b° -2, 1820 mm, 3815 kg (1927) Salvator des' -7, 1590 mm, 2400 kg (1507) Maria es' -4, 1305 mm, 1370 kg (1507/1938) Felix f' -1, 1128 mm, 850 kg (1507) Franziskus ges' +4, 1085 mm, 807 kg (1927) (Joseph b'' -1, 450 mm, 60 kg (1983), southeast choir tower) Minidisc recordings: 09/21/2005 (g°), 01/06/2006 All photos of our own provenance. Sources: See first, marked comment.