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The largest bell of the unique carillon, which will be part of the under-construction chapel of St. John Paul II in Loučka near Vizovice in Zlín region, was cast on Thursday by bell makers in a workshop in Brodek near Přerov. The chapel's design was created by prominent Czech architect Josef Pleskot; the cast bell will be one of forty, making it the largest carillon in the Czech Republic.
Costs are around 22 million crowns, and the chapel is expected to be opened next year.
“This is really a very interesting bell, the largest of the carillon and the entire project we are working on. It is about a meter tall and weighs 500 kilograms,” said bell maker Leticie Vránová-Dytrychová. Her workshop has already cast some of the other bells for the carillon, with all forty bells gradually passing through the hands of local craftsmen.
The production of the bell, which is part of the carillon on the chapel's roof, is specific compared to the production of traditional church bells, according to Vránová-Dytrychová.
“This one is named Panna Maria, it's the basic tone A1. Much higher demands are placed on all the bells that are part of the carillon regarding overtones; it's much more demanding work,” the bell maker outlined.
The bells will bear the names of a number of martyrs
Preparation for production took about two and a half months, while the actual production took about three months.
According to Josef Kořenek, who is one of the founding members of the Association for the Construction of the Chapel in Loučka, the main donor of the chapel of reconciliation and its major supporter Tomáš Chrenek and his family donated the bell.
“Each bell of the carillon has its patron. Thus, for the first time in our country, a group of martyrs from the times of Nazism and Communism will have its bell. Each bell also has its donor, whose name will be inscribed on it,” added Kořenek.
The construction of the chapel is intended to be a thank you for the rescue of the village, which was meant to be burned down at the end of World War II and leveled to the ground due to the cooperation of its inhabitants with local partisans, which ultimately did not happen.
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