The Netherlands Carillon was a gift from British Columbia’s Dutch community to honour Canada’s one hundredth birthday in 1967, and Queen Juliana of the Netherlands unveiled the tower’s cornerstone on May 23, 1967. A carillon is a musical instrument of 23 or more bronze bells, and this one, housed at the top of a tower 27 meters (89 feet) tall, has 62 bells, making it the largest in Canada. Its largest bell weighs 1500 kilograms, and to play it, a musician climbs 75 spiral staircase steps and a 10-step ladder before depressing the keys and pedals of a clavier, whose wires connect to clappers that strike the bells rather than swinging them like church bells. Bells became part of Europe’s religious soundscape in the Middle Ages, when travelling foundry workers cast great bells on site for cathedrals, and by the 16th century the carillon had become a symbol of prosperity and achievement in Flemish and Dutch towns. In 1967, the Netherlands Centennial Committee for British Columbia raised funds for the original set of 49 tuned bronze bells, cast in the Netherlands at the Royal Bellfoundry of Petit and Fritsen, established in 1660. Four years later, to celebrate the centennial of British Columbia’s 1871 entry into Canada, 13 more bells were added, creating Canada’s largest carillon. Several bell pitches commemorate specific events: D marks the founding of the Colony of Vancouver Island in 1849, E the founding of British Columbia as a colony in 1858, F-sharp their union in 1866, F the Confederation of Canada in 1867, G-sharp British Columbia’s 1871 entry into Confederation, and G Canadian soldiers who gave their lives for the liberation of the Netherlands from 1940 to 1945.