Europe’s cathedral bells ring out for peace in Ukraine

COLOGNE/PARIS/ROME (Reuters) – Landmark cathedrals across Europe chimed in unison on Thursday in a gesture of solidarity with Ukraine, as bystanders gathered to mourn those killed during Russia’s invasion and pray for peace.

In Paris, the Notre-Dame cathedral, badly damaged by fire in 2019, tolled its great bourdon bell while in Madrid a crowd gathered outside the city’s La Almudena cathedral.

The bells of Cologne Cathedral – which stood tall amidst a sea of rubble at the end of World War Two after allied bombs flattened the city – St Stephen’s in Vienna and Berlin’s remembrance church also rang out.

“I’m thinking of all the families and children suffering, suffering mentally, from their extreme fear from the sound of bombs, from having to hide in cellars,” said grandmother Veronique Delormel outside Notre-Dame de Paris.

The European Association of Cathedral Master Builders said churches “from Norway to Malta and from Spain to Ukraine” participated.

“Europe is burning,” the association said in a statement. “With the ringing, we pray for all who are affected by this war. With the ringing, we pray for peace.”

Hundreds of Russian soldiers and Ukrainian civilians have been killed during the invasion, which entered its second week on Thursday as the United Nations said more than one million refugees had fled Ukraine..

(Reporting by Emma Thomasson and Ardee Napolitano; Editing by Madeline Chambers, Richard Lough and John Stonestreet)