Bell-Making, the Chocalho Craft of Alcáçovas

The making of chocalhos, also known as the chocalho craft or bell-making, is the traditional trade of hand-producing the chocalho — a percussion idiophone in iron coated with copper or tin, which shepherds hang around the necks of livestock to locate and guide them. More than a utensil, each chocalho is tuned to sound a particular note, and its tinkling forms the characteristic soundscape of the plains of Alentejo. The epicentre of this metalworking craft is the village of Alcáçovas, in the municipality of Viana do Alentejo (district of Évora).

On 1 December 2015, during the 10th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, held in Windhoek, Namibia, UNESCO inscribed this craft on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding (decision 10.COM 10.a.6, reference 01065). It was the first Portuguese expression to enter this list of enhanced protection — a distinction that simultaneously recognises the value of an ancient technique and the fragility of its transmission — and it joins the Cante Alentejano and the Mediterranean Diet in the intangible cultural heritage of Portugal recognised worldwide.

An idiophone that gives voice to the landscape

The chocalho consists of an iron-sheet bell with a suspended internal clapper, fastened by a leather collar around the animal’s neck. It serves not only to locate and guide livestock: the variety of sizes, thicknesses and tunings creates true sound ensembles that, over the centuries, have shaped the soundtrack of the Alentejo fields. Each flock carries a distinct combination of timbres, allowing the shepherd to recognise his animals at a distance and even at night.

The sound of the chocalho is not an incidental effect but a tuned language: the master bell-maker works both form and tone, adjusting the piece until it yields the desired note.

How a chocalho is made

The making of a chocalho results from the meeting of ancient knowledge: the “arts of fire” of the blacksmith and the coppersmith, placed in the service of a musical purpose. The process is entirely manual and requires a long apprenticeship.

It begins with a sheet of iron which is cut, cold-hammered on the anvil and bent until it takes a concave, cup-like form. Small portions of copper or tin are applied to the iron, and the piece is wrapped in a mixture of clay and straw. This is followed by firing in the forge or kiln and tempering by rapid immersion in cold water: the intense heat, followed by sudden cooling, fuses the coating metal onto the iron. Finally, the burnt clay is removed, the piece is polished and tuning begins — perhaps the most subtle gesture of all, in which the master adjusts the chocalho’s timbre by striking and reshaping the metal until the desired sonority is reached.

No score or instrument can replace the ear of the bell-maker: it is through attentive listening to each piece that one decides when the sound is right, and in this refined judgement lies the heart of the craft.

The technical complexity explains why the knowledge is transmitted almost exclusively within the family, from father to son, in small workshops and over many years of apprenticeship.

Alcáçovas, capital of the chocalho

Alcáçovas, a parish of the municipality of Viana do Alentejo, is regarded as the Portuguese capital of the chocalho and the main living centre of this craft. Chocalho production has been documented here for centuries and, from the mid-eighteenth century onwards, became one of the most distinctive economic activities of the locality, closely tied to herding and livestock rearing in the region. The village is home to the Museu do Chocalho, which holds thousands of pieces and helps to publicise the history and techniques of this craft.

The UNESCO nomination resulted from a partnership between the Municipality of Viana do Alentejo, the Alcáçovas Parish Council and the regional tourism authority. The chocalhos and their makers were registered and described in a municipal inventory catalogue, and the process has often been cited as an exemplary nomination for the way it engaged the community that holds the knowledge.

A threatened knowledge

Inscription on the list of urgent safeguarding is not a mere honorary recognition: it marks a tradition at real risk of extinction, whose trade has become economically unsustainable. At the time of nomination, about 11 workshops and 13 bell-makers remained active, nine of them over 70 years old. New forms of livestock management, with fewer flocks and fewer shepherds, have reduced demand, while industrial production offers cheaper alternatives lacking the manual work of tuning.

The status granted by UNESCO seeks to reverse this trend, supporting the training of new apprentices and the enhancement of the chocalho as a handcrafted product and as a cultural and tourist object — a dynamic visible in the activity of the Museu do Chocalho in Alcáçovas. The making of chocalhos today constitutes one of the most emblematic cases of active safeguarding of a traditional craft at risk of disappearing.

Alongside other expressions recognised within the framework of the World Heritage and Portuguese intangible heritage, the bell-making craft reminds us that heritage is measured not only in stone, but also in the gestures and knowledge passed from generation to generation — and that, were it to disappear, it would take with it a sound inseparable from the Alentejo countryside.