Artisanal manufacture of bronze bells, tabletop bells, turned bells, carillons and wooden and iron headstocks.

The Hermanos Portilla foundry is a family firm with a long tradition of bell-founding in Cantabria, specialising in the manufacture of bells and carillons, monumental clocks, peal automation, restoration and renovation.

The… firm’s chief figure is the master bell-founder Abel Portilla. He works with the artisanal technique of lost-wax casting with loam moulds, with which he makes unique bells of high quality.

The process starts with the making of a stencil or strickle board, a key element which only a few master bell-founders are able to produce. Taking account of historical designs and of the desired note (and on occasion the pitches of any other bells in a church belfry need to be determined), a diameter is obtained for designing the stencil. An inner mould or core is then made in loam for the inside of the bell. Ornamental motifs are added in wax. New bells are produced with bronze sourced from old bells melted in the furnace. The key point is when the molten metal is fed in between the two moulds. The metal solidifies over two days, after which the bell is taken out by means of breaking the moulds. Finally the bell is cleaned and scrubbed both outside and inside.

Hermanos Portilla also founds bells in situ, by bell towers. This involves setting up a furnace at the site where the bell is to be hung – which is how bells were made before the advent of railways.

As well as their plant in Gajano, the brothers have a foundry at their grandparents’ old home in Vierna.