Why does El Camino Real have bells?

It was to be a bell denoting the early connection with the Franciscan friars' California missions – a bell mounted on a tall crook set in concrete and placed along the King's Highway. The bells were first created and paid for by the Camino Real Association in the early 1900s.



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The mission bells set the rhythm of life for all who lived at the missions. All through the day the mission bells rang, announcing that it was time to go to church, time for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, time to work, or time to rest.

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For Spanish settlers, El Camino Real was the bridge to preserving cultural and religious traditions, communicating with loved ones and maintaining a European cultural identity.

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Their history goes back to 1906, when Forbes designed the first of the El Camino Real Bells.

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Over the centuries, bell ringing has served as a means of expression and communication in Spain, fulfilling a number of social functions, from information-sharing, to coordination, protection and cohesion.

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The Camino Real de los Tejas is a historic route that stretches from the Texas-Mexico border to Natchitoches, La. It's called the Camino Real, which translates to royal road, because the roads were once part of Spain's empire in the Americas.

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From human lives to cultural artifacts, the Nazis were unrelenting in their conquest. But to feed their war machine and keep their armies outfitted, the Nazis needed vast quantities of metals – and like plucking fruit from a tree, they turned to peaceable, defenseless bell towers to pillage their scrap.

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The bell towers are perhaps the most beautiful and remarkable features of the missions in California. The bells were rung at mealtimes, to call residents to work and worship, during special events such as births and funerals, to signal the approach of a ship, or to sound an alarm.

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The El Camino Real has many names, most common are “The Royal Road” and “The King's Highway.” The El Camino Real is widely known today as a 600-mile (965-kilometer) road which is spans from the area in San Diego near the Mission San Diego del Alcalá to the Mission San Francisco Solano in Sonoma.

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