In Innsbruck left the formula of the memorial bell # 9801; the casting for Prague is fine
Updates: 06/23/2022 18:48
Released: 23.06.2022, 18:48
Innsbruck / Prague – In the Grassmayr bell workshop in Innsbruck, Austria, the bell-masters today broke the form and issued a memorial bell that will commemorate the fate of the bells taken by the Nazis from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia to Germany in Prague on Rohan Island. According to the number of reconstructed bells, it will bear the name # 9801. The casting is fine. The bell-riders will now clean it and then assemble it, the heart of the bell is already ready. Ondřej Boháč, bell tower and chairman of the Sanctus Castulus association, who initiated the bell, told ČTK.
Money initiators withdraw in public collection. The bell should arrive in Prague in the second half of the holidays.
“Today the bell was taken out of the mold, so we saw it for the first time. The casting worked, it’s clean and accurate. All the reliefs worked, too. so we also recognized it for the first time within the tradition today, “said Boháč.
Of the alloys made up of 78 percent bronze and 22 percent tin, the bell was cast on Friday, June 10, and since then it has cooled in the so-called casting pit. After today’s pick-up, it still had a temperature of about 70 degrees Celsius. In the following days and weeks, its surface will be cleaned, sandblasted and the remnants of the mold removed. A heart of about 300 kilos will then be mounted. The bells will also check the tone of the bell.
The bell will measure 187 centimeters and weigh 9801 kilograms. The weight was determined based on the number of bells requisitioned during World War II. According to the authors of its artistic form, Kryštof Čižinský and Jakub Kamínek, the main motif for the decoration of bell # 9801 will be the rebirth of the old and destroyed into the new. The cloak is decorated with fragments of bells that were destroyed during the war and the surrounding area was used in the armaments industry.
The Austrian bell-ringer Johannes Grassmayr already appreciated the idea that the association from Prague came up with during the casting. “We are fascinated by the idea of making the bells lost during World War II,” he said. According to him, the importance of a similar project has further strengthened the international development of recent months. “None of us could have guessed that a war would break out in Ukraine. This gave the bell much more symbolism than it did a few months ago,” he said.
The location of the bell on Rohan Island is preliminarily planned for 2024, before which the work will be temporarily on a pontoon on the Vltava. According to an earlier statement by the Deputy Mayor of Prague, Petr Hlaváček, designers who will design the future shape of Rohanský and Libeňský Islands will also count on the bell on Rohanský Island.