Visitors exploring the Holy See Pavilion located inside the Italy Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka are not only able to admire Caravaggio's majestic 'The Deposition'.
    They can also listen to the 'mute sound' of the great bell (Campanone) of St.

Peter's Basilica, not the chiming that can be heard three times a year - for Christmas, Easter and the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul - but the silent echoes present throughout the year when the structure is still.
    "We have made what normally constitutes silence audible", stated Ambassador Umberto Vattani, the president of the Venice international University who illustrated the project by US artist Bill Fontana for St Peter's Basilica called 'The Silent Echoes of the Great Bell'.
    The sound installation reproduces the hidden vibrations of the bell.
    The project, conceived and curated by Umberto Vattani with Valentino Catricalà, was promoted by the Venice International University, with the support of Enel, Gruppo FS Italiane and Meyer Sound.
    Bells, according to a joint statement issued by the University and its partners, "have been intimately connected with Christianity since the beginning" and, "in addition to marking time, their chiming has called the faithful to prayer".

In particular, they explained, the great bell of St Peter's Basilica "occupies a special place in the heart of Christianity", although "few know that it is always listening, welcoming the voices of those who suffer, the screams of populations torn by war, as well as the whispers of hope, of solidarity coming from pilgrims from around the world".
    "Bill Fontana wanted to give voice to its apparent silence.
    "Thanks to technology, he made the Great Bell's hidden voice audible.
    "Even without the clapper, he has shown that St. Peter's Bell echoes the universal language of peace and hope in the world", concluded the note.
   

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