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Sather Tower
Commonly known as The Campanile, Sather Tower is a famous bell and clock tower located inside the University of California, Berkeley campus symbolizing the illustrious history of the university. Completed in 1914, Sather Tower was designed by John Galen Howard and bears a resemblance to Campanile de San Marco in Venice, Italy. The tower has been named after Jane K. Sather as an acknowledgement of her services to the University. Sather Tower is the tallest bell tower outside Italy.
The height of the Sather Tower is 307 feet (93.6 meters) and it has 13 floors. However, the most exciting feature of this tower is its world-renowned carillon of 61 bells that are famous for daily concerts that echo around the campus. The concerts are held at 7.30 AM, noon and 6.00 PM. However, longer concerts are held on Sundays at 2.00 PM. On the last day of instruction each semester, “They’re hanging Danny Deever in the Morning” is played following which the bells remain silent until the end of finals.
The largest of the bells is a 10,500 pound “Great Bear Bell” that bears bas-relief carvings of bears as well as the constellation Ursa Major.
An observation deck is located on the eighth floor, some 200 feet up the Sather Tower, which can be reached using an elevator. This platform provides a panoramic view of the surroundings that include the University of California, Berkeley campus, the San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate. Apart from this, there are other floors on the Sather Tower where fossils of the Paleontology Department are stored. Due to its cool and dry interiors, Sather Tower presents an ideal environment suitable for preserving fossils, which have been collected mainly from the La Brea Tar Pits.
One of the dubious distinctions that the tower has is being a suicide point for many stressed, depressed and overwhelmed students.
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