The half-ton bell from the world-famous bell maker will see the light of day in a few days

Currently, the bell is in a special clay mold and the bell ringers are waiting for it to cool in the pit and they will be able to show it in its true beauty after seven days during the next week. “The bell is a musical instrument. It’s not a statue. When gradually lowering the temperature in the casting pit, we try to prevent the bell casting from shrinking,” remarked Dytrychová.

The mold is made of clay and other additives. It is fired and dried a few days before casting. “Before placing it in the casting pit, we needed to heat it to approximately fifty degrees so that the moisture would disappear from it,” explained Leticie Dytrychová.

After that, the workers of artistic bell-making joined the two parts of the mold, placed them in a pit and filled them with a hot alloy that was 1140 degrees Celsius.

The bell cast this week is the largest of the whole set of carillons created for the parish in Loučka in the Zlín region, where it will be placed in the chapel of St. John Paul II “There will be a unique and largest carillon in Central Europe in the Reconciliation Chapel. The entire building is so unique in every way that it is being referred to as the ‘pearl of Wallachia’. It contains forty bells and each one has its own patron,” noted Josef Kořenek.

“It will really be the largest carillon in the history of the republic, a total of three and a half octaves. It is a big responsibility to create something that will remain here for several centuries and will be enjoyed by future generations,” added Dytrychová. He reminds that the production of the bell, which is part of the carillon on the roof of the chapel, is specific compared to the production of church bells. “This one is called Panna Maria, it is the default A1 base tone. Much higher demands are placed on all the bells that are part of the carillon, as far as aliquot tones are concerned. It is much more demanding work,” added the bell ringer. According to her, the preparation for its production took 2.5 months, and the production itself took roughly three months.

The largest bell was donated by the main donor of the Reconciliation Chapel, Tomáš Chrenek and his family. “His main wish and message is that the bells ring for a world that will live in peace and love,” Kořenek said.

The bells will be fixed stationary in the carillon. “They have an electromagnetic hammer inside that moves whenever it’s supposed to.”