Touring the churches and monasteries that had come under Austrian rule at the beginning of the 18th century, Exarch Maksim Radković, the envoy of Metropolitan Vićentije Jovanović of Belgrade and Karlovci (1689–1737), visited in 1733 Manasija Monastery as well, in which monastic life had been restored somewhat earlier. In his report Radković noted that there was one bell in the Manasija Church of the Holy Trinity [IMR 167]. Unfortunately, only a few years after Radković's visit, Manasija Monastery was again deserted, and the fate of the bell seen by the metropolitan's exarch is not known.
After the Serbian uprisings, at the beginning of the 19th century, Manasija Monastery came to life again. The Resava bells once more resounded through the monastery courtyard and the Resava fortress, marking the renewal and continuation of monastic life in this holy place. Centuries had passed, and liberation brought new benefactors to Manasija: in his notes on the life and work of Abbot Isaija Stojšić (†1852), the superior of Manasija Monastery in the first half of the 19th century, Evgenije Simeonović (1815–1880) recorded that Abbot Isaija built a bell tower and procured new bells. During his administration, Prince Miloš Obrenović (1780/1783–1860), in memory of his mother Višnja (1737–1817), donated two bells to Manasija Monastery in 1838, weighing 125 and 200 pounds, thus fulfilling the promise he had given the monks during his visit to Manasija in 1832.
It is not certain where the bell tower was located during the 19th century, and from where these Manasija bells rang out. It is very likely that the bell tower stood in the courtyard, on the western side of the church, near the entrance to the Resava fortress. Around 1870, the German travel writer Gustav Rasch (1825–1878) visited Manasija and recorded that beside the monastery gate rose a tall belfry, with a roof resembling a canopy, beneath which a great bell swung. Delighted by Manasija Monastery, which left a very powerful impression on him, Rasch wrote:
“Near the gate through which we had entered stood a tall wooden belfry, beneath whose roof hung an enormous bell.”
King Aleksandar Obrenović (1876–1903) continued the tradition of the Serbian rulers, and like the Serbian sovereigns of old he gave fitting gifts to Manasija Monastery, a royal endowment. Thus in 1898 King Aleksandar donated to the monastery a great bell weighing 1,800 kilograms. This bell was consecrated by Metropolitan Inokentije Pavlović of Belgrade (1840–1905) on Sunday, October 4, 1898.
According to reports that appeared in the press of the time, the great bell donated to Manasija Monastery by King Aleksandar Obrenović was installed in one of the towers. Photographs and drawings from the beginning of the 20th century reveal that the bell tower was located at the top of the tower rising on the northern side of the entrance to the Resava fortress, and that the bell tower was covered with a four-sided sheet-metal roof, while a cross shone at its top.
During the First World War, in 1916 the Austro-Hungarian authorities issued a decision on the requisition of church bells: namely, since the bronze from which church bells were made was an excellent material for the needs of the war machine, above all for making cannons, the occupying authorities proceeded to confiscate church bells. The result was devastating - during the three remaining years of the war, the Austro-Hungarian occupiers seized and destroyed what generation upon generation had created in previous centuries. Thousands upon thousands of church and monastery bells were taken down from belfries and bell towers and then ruined. The bells were confiscated and carried off, and then melted down into cannons and artillery pieces. After the great bells, the smaller bells came next for confiscation, then even cemetery and school bells. The Austro-Hungarian army did not stop there; copper and lead coverings and lightning rods were then stripped from the roofs of churches and other church buildings, and copper cauldrons and other metal objects were confiscated... According to data of the Austro-Hungarian administration, by the end of 1916 alone, 6,400 tons of bronze had been collected in this way from Dalmatia in the west to Timișoara in the east.