New Bells to Sound over Prague (Portal of Prague)

New Bells to Sound over Prague

St. Vitus’ Cathedral is awaiting the first chime of its new bells. The four current ones will be supplemented with another three requisitioned during World War I and bearing the names of Jesus, Virgin Mary and St. Dominic.

Oskar Exner
9. May 2012

The inhabitants of Prague will hear the bells in the same way they used to be heard before the year 1916, when they were first requisitioned. They will be inaugurated around the noon of 12th May at the culmination of the solemn mass to mark the 450th anniversary of the restoration of Prague Archbishopric.

The bells may be ringing somewhere else

Just like thousands of other bells from other Czech churches, the bells were requisitoned in the time of World War I. Some of them were melted and used to make cannons and ammunition, others disappeared, as they were used to make blue vitriol to spray over vineyards. Some bells have never been destroyed. There is still hope that some of the bells from St. Vitus’ Cathedral still exist somewhere in Europe. After all, hundreds of other Czech bells requisitioned during World War II could return to the Czech Republic.

Seven bells

Archbishop Dominik Duka is the patron of one of the bells – Dominic. “According to its name, the bell was used for Sunday masses, the name is just a coincidence,” said Cardinal Dominik Duka. He also pointed out the purpose of bells in people’s lives. “They serve them throughout their whole life, from their birth to their death, they warn them, assemble them, announce both joyful and sad moments,” said the cardinal. Thanks to the donors, the number of the bells has been put back to the magic number of seven, i.e. the same number of bells that had been heard in Prague since the 16th century.

First bells, then organ

Thanks to donors, the 1.6 million CZK needed for the bells was collected in a short time. Before blessing the bells, Cardinal Dominik Duka expressed his hope that also the organs will soon resound through the cathedral.

9. May 2012
9. May 2012

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About the bells and the donors

After the appeal to restore the bells, donors swiftly signed up and they were more numerous than the bells. The first donors were brothers Rudolf and František Pohl from Bludov, then Prague Castle Administration and also seven professors from the ČVUT. “Although the Mayor of Prague Bohuslav Svoboda quickly responded to the appeal, Prague’s money was not needed,” said Cardinal Duka. “Still we need to thank the city, as it paid a considerable amount of money to suspend the bells,” added the cardinal. The bells were made by bell-founders from Brodek u Přerova under the leadership of Laetitia Vránová Dytrychová, successor of the famous bell-founder family. “There are four functional bells in St. Vitus’ Cathedral, out of which Sigmund is the largest one, weighing some 16 tons,” said the Dean of Metropolitan Chapter of St Vitus, Jiří Svoboda. The names of the other bells are John, Joseph and Wenceslas.

When can we hear the bells

All seven bells will chime before the holy mass on 12th May, i.e. before 11 o‘clock. However, the inauguration of the bells will not be held until after the mass. “It is expected that the bells will sound for about half an hour,” said one of the bell ringers Tomáš Stařecký. All 27 bell-ringers from the cathedral will take part in the ceremony.