Lebanon’s Last Church Bell Makers Guard a Three-Century Legacy

In Beit Chabab, a town in Mount Lebanon, Naffaa Naffaa and his son are preserving a craft passed down through their family for three centuries: casting church bells.

The Naffaa family are described as the last guardians of this trade in the Arab East, keeping alive a tradition that has endured through generations of skilled metalwork.

At the heart of their work is the knowledge of how to cast molten metal into bells. Father and son continue to hold the secrets of that process, maintaining the family’s direct connection to its craft.

Their work preserves more than the bells themselves. In Beit Chabab, the continuation of this rare trade represents the survival of a family inheritance—and a chapter of Lebanon’s artisanal heritage.