Specialists worked for 10 months to move the largest bell of the cathedral in Veszprém.

The biggest bell of the St. Michael's Cathedral in Veszprém, the 3,400-kilogram Holy Trinity bell, was highlighted, and it will be restored using a special method, the archdiocese of Veszprém told MTI.

Also known as "Mihály the Old", cast in the Vienna workshop of Franz Ulrich Scheichel in 1725, the bell with a lower diameter of 170 centimeters was not removed from its place even during the remodeling of the basilica at the beginning of the 20th century. restored as part of investments.

Bell expert Balázs now said:

The four smaller bells of St. Michael's Cathedral were easier to move in recent days, but due to its artistic value, the size of the tower's windows and the narrow streets of the castle quarter, the structural engineers, stone restorers, heritage protection engineers, bell fitters and crane technologists worked together for ten months to highlight the "Old Michael" .

Finally, the bell was hoisted onto a steel structure with a winch, then it was brought to one of the tower windows on a special roller line, from where it was lifted down with a crane - Balázs Most explained the process. He added: during the restoration of the bell, a new bronze crown faithful to the original will also be made.

After the restoration, the four other bells will not be transported to Veszprém, but to other churches in the archdiocese, and five new bells - one weighing 2250, one 1130, one 660, one 540 and one 227 kilograms - will be made in the Grassmayr bell foundry, founded in 1599, in addition to the great bell. .

The five new bells about Saint Michael, the patron saint of the cathedral; About Gisella the Blessed, the builder of the basilica; About St. Anne, the patron saint of the archdiocese; about martyr Mária Magdolna Bódi; and it will be named after Saint George, the patron saint of the ancient chapel in Veszprém.

The six bells will be placed in the basilica by 2025, where, together with the new organ put into use last year, they will welcome the beatification of the martyr Mária Magdolna Bódi and the rededication of the main cathedral.

Featured image: The great bell of St. Michael's Cathedral in Veszprém is being prepared to be lifted by crane on October 30, 2024. The country's oldest bell, weighing around 3,400 kilograms, will be moved for the first time in three hundred years, and then restored using a special method that will allow it to regain its original sound.
MTI/Tamás Vasvári