Few sounds are more characteristic of Italy than the peal of church bells from the local campanile but traditionalists in Rome are lamenting the disappearance of the art of bellringing.

Rome has 585 churches and 1,500 bells — but nearly all are now being operated electronically, and some even play recorded chimes. Few have their bells pulled by hand any longer.

Father Mauro Manganozzi, who still rings the bells himself at the San Giuseppe da Copertino church, which was built in 1956, said that the sacristans who rang the bells were a dying breed. The advance of modern labour-saving technology is perhaps inevitable “but the sound is not the same”.

“I think our parishioners really like their bells, and 50 years on they are used to them being rung just as they are now, by hand,” he said.

Father Manganozzi admitted, however, that the continuation of the traditional method is partly a question of cost. “I don't think there's any money to install an automated system, even if we wanted one,” he said.

The great bells of St Peter's Basilica itself are rung by hand to mark liturgical festivals or papal elections and deaths. Most churches, however, are supplied by the Rome diocese with computerised amplification sound systems which can ring the Angelus and play Christus Vincit for Easter or carols at Christmas. They are even programmed to “fade away” like real bells.

According to a diocesan official, the cost of installing new bronze bells has become prohibitive. “At a time when people are hard-pressed economically, and parish collections are down, we can save thousands of euros by not hanging real bells,” he said.

Fabio Giona, president of the Italian Association of Bell Ringers, said that traditionalists were fighting a rearguard action. “The bell is a sacred instrument, and we are passing down the ancient tradition from father to son,” he told the newspaper La Repubblica. Three thousand bell-ringing enthuasists had turned up at a national bell-ringing festival in June at Castelnuovo del Garda, he said. “Lots of young people get in touch with us because they want to ring bells. But the priests don't always welcome us with open arms — some people are always complaining about the noise the bells make.”

There are in any case no bell foundries left in Rome to make them. The last one — the Pontificia Fonderia Lucenti, founded by Camillo Lucenti in 1550 in the Borgo, the cobblestoned medieval quarter next to St Peter's — closed down more than ten years ago.

The few remaining bell foundries left in Italy include the Marinelli papal foundry at Agnone, near Isernia, in the Molise region, which dates to medieval times.