1. "Silent" Tsar Bell. Its casting was completed in 1735, after which one of the symbols of Russia remained in the pit, since there was no suitable structure to support its weight. And in 1737, during a large-scale Moscow fire, a piece weighing 11 tons broke off from the bell. For another hundred years, the "giant" remained in the casting pit, after which it was installed on a pedestal in the Kremlin.

2. The Great Assumption Bell has not rung and never will. Several times the question was raised of how to solder the Tsar Bell and use it for its intended purpose. However, experts say that it will not work to get a clear sound after soldering. By the way, the tongue was not made for the Tsar Bell, and the one that lies on the pedestal was taken from another, unknown bell.

3. The present Tsar Bell had two "ancestors" with the same names."Grandfather" was cast for the Kremlin bell tower at the beginning of the 17th century by order of Boris Godunov. Its weight was 35 tons. And during one of the many Moscow fires, it crashed, after which the bell was poured, increasing its weight to 128 tons. It took a hundred people to put his tongue in motion! This bell "died" in 1701, after it broke once again.

4. There is a bell that rings almost constantly. If the Tsar Bell never rung, then at Oxford University there is a bell that has been ringing almost continuously (except for short breaks caused by high humidity in the room) for about 170 years. So, with the help of voltaic pillars (devices for generating electricity, used in early electrical engineering), the tongue swings between two bells.

5. Ringing a bell can serve a variety of purposes. For example, in Turin (Italy) there was a "bread bell" that rang at the moment when it was time to knead the dough for bread so that it was ready for dinner. In Gdansk (Poland) for a long time there was a "beer bell" announcing the opening of drinking establishments. And the "Bell of Purity" in Bonn (Germany) called on residents to sweep the streets.

6. The bell was a pagan symbol. Today, bell ringing is associated with Orthodoxy, but at the dawn of Christianity, bells were considered pagan symbols. There is a legend that the oldest bell in Germany called "Saufang" ("Pig prey") was dug out of the mud by pigs. Even after he was washed and hung on the bell tower, he refused to ring. This continued until the bishop consecrated him, thereby cleansing him of the pagan filth.

7. The crimson ringing appeared thanks to Peter I. The phrase "Mechelen (crimson) ringing" appeared after Peter I ordered the first carillon for Russia ( musical instrument with a row of bells) in the Belgian city of Mechelen, which is called Malines in French. It was there in the Middle Ages that a successful alloy for casting bells was developed, which gives a soft and very pleasant ringing, which is now called "crimson".

8. Some bells in Russia were exiled and even tortured. In 1591, the Uglich bell was thrown from the Spasskaya bell tower, his tongue was torn out, his ear was cut off, he was punished in public on the square with 12 lashes, and as a result he was "exiled" to Siberia. The reason for such a cruel treatment of the bell, which was then about 300 years old, was the "incitement" to a riot (with its ringing he gathered the townspeople in the square) on the occasion of the death of Tsarevich Dmitry. There is also a legend that in 1681 the "Nabatny" bell of the Moscow Kremlin was "exiled" to the Korelsky Nicholas Monastery (Nicholas Korelsky Monastery): his fault was that he woke Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich with his ringing at night.

9. Bells are not only on Earth, but also in space. So, there is a bell on the International Space Station. They call him when the captain of the crew changes.

10. Big Ben is the only name for the bell in the clock in the north part of Westminster Palace. But often this name extends to the clock and the tower as well. Nevertheless, since September 2012, the tower has been officially called "Elizabeth's Tower". It was renamed to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.

Do you want to be healthy and live long? Then write down the recipe:

Holy water on an empty stomach, prayers 2 times a day, and on Sundays the ringing of bells. Are you laughing? But look what modern scientists have to say about all this.

Prayers through the eyes of scientists

"Prayer vigilance"

I'll start with prayers. What is your understanding of prayer? Everything is correct - communication with God. And for scientists it is also an altered state of the brain.

Employees of the Institute. V.M. Bekhterev, having taken electroencephalograms from Orthodox priests during prayers, came to the conclusion that at this time their cerebral cortex .... turns off completely. That is, a state of clear consciousness appears during a complete shutdown of the brain. Prior to this discovery, it was believed that the human brain can work in one of three modes - wakefulness, REM sleep or slow sleep, but now they have discovered another state of the brain, which they called the "fourth state" - this is "prayer wakefulness."

During prayer, the frequency of the brain is reduced to 2-3 Hz. In an adult, this frequency is observed only during slow sleep, and in wakefulness only in infants up to 2 months. Scientists even joke without malice that the words of Christ "Be like children and be saved" can also refer to the state of the brain. Scientists who have studied "prayer vigilance" unanimously agree that the fourth state of the brain is as necessary for physical and mental health as the other three. In this state, a person is healed of diseases and recovered mentally.

Our Father against disease

What can you say if prayer kills harmful germs and viruses? But this is the conclusion they came to: Angelina Malakhovskaya (a member of the Orthodox Scientists Union) and American scientists. Pathogenic microbes are killed not only in the patient's body, but also in the water, which is overshadowed by the sign of the cross and over which the prayer "Our Father" is read. The scientist took simple water from various natural sources, which contained harmful microbes and viruses, for example Staphylococcus aureus, a prayer was read over it and the number of pathogenic microbes was reduced by 100 times. Therefore, dear readers, the sign of the cross of food is not just a quirk of the priests, it is important for your health.

But that's not all - while you read a prayer or baptize food, the negative information component is also erased. I saw priests who, before taking money from the table, first baptize them so that harmful information does not pass through them (money passes through many different hands, among whom there are people with unkind thoughts).

Professor Mitchell Crushoff, a cardiologist at the Duke's University, found that the rate of recovery of patients through prayer increases by 93%.

In addition, scholars claim that prayers are capable of: quickly reduce high blood pressure, lower blood cholesterol levels, normalize metabolic processes and heart rate, restore mental balance, extinguish anger, despondency and depression.

Scientists about holy water

Employees of the Moscow Institute of Information Wave Technologies argue that the electromagnetic radiation (EMP) of consecrated (holy) water from different sources is identical, but at the same time is very different from the EMP of plain water and even "silver water".

So why does holy water heal according to scientists?

It turned out that the EMP curve of holy water completely coincides with the EMP of a healthy organ. Moreover, if you add holy water to idle water, then the EMP of simple water changes to the EMP of holy water. Holy water, as in the example with the "burning" of simple water, getting into the body of the body transfers to it, through the body fluid, a strong impulse of health.

Moreover, scientists argue that simple water becomes holy, even if you add 1 spoonful of holy water to 60 liters of simple water.

Interesting fact

• At tap water, over which the sign of the Cross was performed by a simple believer, the optical density increases by almost 1.5 times;
• When consecrated by a priest, 2.5 times;
• Baptized, but not a believer, water increases its optical density by only 10%.

Bells ringing according to scientists

The fact that the bell ringing kills (thanks to ultra and infrasonic waves) pathogens, Swedish scientists, proved back in the 70s of the last century, although in Russia this was known for a long time. It was not for nothing that during the plague epidemics and the invasion of the enemy in Russia, the bell alarm was constantly ringing. Church bells are sometimes called an icon in sound.

From the proven

Bell ringing kills several kilometers:

• Influenza viruses;
• Jaundice virus;
• Smallpox;

In a few seconds it kills:

• Plague bacteria;
• Typhoid shelf;
• Cholera;
• Tuberculosis.

There is a hypothesis that the irrepressible typhoid epidemics in the post-revolutionary 1920s were directly related to the prohibition of church bell ringing.

• The activity of microbes "listening" to bell ringing or choral singing falls on average by 40%;
• Bell ringers do not get colds;
• In the 17th century, the body of the dead Novgorod Metropolitan Aphonius stood without signs of decay for 11 weeks under the bells of the monastery;
• Mathematicians have proved that the radiation of a bell in free space, in its directionality, has the shape of a volumetric cross;
• There are many cases of healing the "possessed" by ringing bells;
• Low tones of bells are more human-friendly than high tones;
• A bell ringing recorded on a medium and reproduced on acoustics “does not work” like a “live” bell;
• According to Shipunov, in pre-revolutionary Russia, the potential of sound radiation from bells was such that it could deflect the trajectory of a medium-range missile. Russia was under an invisible, protective sound dome.
• Bells are used to treat mental illness.

RESULTS

According to American scientists (scientists from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Yeshiva University), regular attendance at church services, at least once a week, improves health by 20%. If you are an atheist or a skeptic - maybe it's time to think and "accept" God? After all, these are all facts from scientists, but you probably believe them? If you are a believer, then may this fast give you faith and health.

In Moscow, there is a huge number of curious and funny monuments from different eras, whose history arouses the irrepressible curiosity of both adults and children.

These can be sculptures dedicated to fairy tales, heroes of books and films, real people, vices of society and even such "ordinary" things as a stool, a fly, or signs of students.

Some of these monuments have a rather long and curious history. This includes 2 famous monuments Tsar Cannon and Tsar Bell, which are located on the territory of the Moscow Kremlin.

Unfortunately, the latter is notable not for its main purpose (ringing), but exclusively appearance and mass. It is about him in this article there will be a story from which you will find out in what year it was cast and how much it weighs.

In contact with

Appearance

This is not just a huge structure that stands in the Kremlin, but one of the main attractions of Russia. It is also considered a monument of the casting art of the 18th century.

"Tsar's" copy. View from the Ivanovskaya Square

In height, it exceeds the mark of 6 meters, in diameter it is more than 6.5 meters. The entire structure weighs over 200 tons. The authors were the famous foundry workers at that time, father Ivan and son Mikhail Motorina. The design was originally created for the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, but was not used for some reason.

Outside, the royal personages, the Mother of God, Christ and other saints are minted, there is a memorable entry with a description of the creation, the names of the creators and the date "1733", although the copy was cast only 24 months later.

Above and below it is surrounded by a pattern, at the top there is a large gilded cross. However, many researchers note differences in the coinage of reality and in the images of past centuries. Information and photos about this can be additionally found on the Internet.

Interesting fact: there is no tongue inside the structure: for the reasons indicated below, it was not cast at all, a tongue from a stranger was put inside.

According to the analysis carried out in the Soviet Union, the tsar's specimen consists of a mixture of several metals. Almost 85% is copper, another 13% is tin, a little more than 1% is sulfur. Less than 0.5% is occupied by silver and gold. However, the share of gold is more than 70 kg, silver is more than 500 kg.

It is interesting: according to wikipedia during Civil war Denikin, being a general, decided to print his own currency, choosing this monument as an image - because of this, after the depreciation, they received the nickname "bells".

You can see the monument in the Moscow Kremlin: it stands on Ivanovskaya Square not far from Ivan the Great. This place he never left in his life.

"Ancestors"

The first Russian "Tsar Bell", which was cast at the beginning of the 17th century.

Today's is not the only "sovereign" that existed in Russia. Such a title appeared long before the present one - each possessed a mass and size that was transcendent at a certain moment:

1. For the first time such a nickname was given to a specimen cast at the beginning of the seventeenth century, which weighed 40 tons, but its fate turned out to be unenviable: in the middle of the century it crashed.
2. The next one was immediately melted - already weighing 130 tons. But he lived even less: already in 1654 he fell and crashed during the Christmas bell.
3. The next was a bell weighing 160 tons, made by the foundry worker Grigoriev. It took about a hundred bell ringers to rock it. He lived until the beginning of the 18th century. and fell when the fire started.

It's important to know: the material of the Grigorievsky bell went to the ebb of the current one.

1. After that, the bells were left alone for 30 years, but Empress Anna Ioannovna decided to try again to break the record and ordered the largest version - the one that stands in the Kremlin today. However, his fate was not much better than that of the “ancestors”.

How the work went

The preliminary work took several years. At first, we spent four years preparing the forms. For this, a pit 10 meters deep was dug on Ivanovskaya Square, in which a casting mold was placed.

The distance between the walls of the pit and the mold was filled with tamped earth, and the mold itself was reinforced with broken bricks and oak inserts. An iron grate was placed on the bottom, on which the form stood.

The chasing on the bogatyr foundry monument belongs to the hands of the sculptor Fyodor Medvedev: he carved patterns and images from wood, and then made an impression on the inside of the casing. Also, several craftsmen took part in the work, who, by order of Peter I, took courses in molding and pedestal business abroad.

Chasing by the hands of the sculptor Fyodor Medvedev

Do you know that: at first, a French royal mechanic by the name of Germain was offered a job on casting, but he decided that this was a joke - it was difficult even to imagine a product of the required parameters and weight.

Casting began in 1733 and took over twelve months. In 1734, just before the start of work, an accident occurred in the smelters: spilled copper not only spoiled the sample, but also led to a major fire in the city. Its consequences were eliminated only after a year. During this period, the project manager was replaced: Ivan Motorin died, and the case passed to his son.

Everything was ready only after two summers. In four melting furnaces, it was melted in 36 hours required amount metal, after which it was poured into molds.

The process took just over an hour, and all this time about 400 firefighters were on duty. The pit with a huge structure was covered with wooden beams and left to cool. Then, without pulling it out, they began to emboss, since the image on the walls turned out to be uneven and blurry.

Note: since the manufacture, most likely, took place according to the old molds, then on this copy there is an incorrect casting date - "1733".

How the piece broke off

But the adventure was not over: in 1737 there was a major fire. Broke out wooden floors above, and then the bell glowed. It was decided to pull him out of the pit.

The metal was pre-cooled cold water, but due to the huge temperature difference, several through cracks appeared. This was the main reason why, when picked up, he split, making a fall. The piece that fell off weighed more than 11 tons.

However, some researchers believe that the fire was just a pretext, and the blame should be placed on carelessly performed work, for example, on violations that occurred during casting.

The price paid to the foundry worker Motorin is often called confirmation: for his work he received a thousand rubles and the rank of a foundry worker. However, his next orders were estimated almost eight times more expensive: 8 thousand per work.

This is how the picture was raised in Moscow in 1836.

The first projects to remove the "king" from the mold ended in failure. It was possible to do this only after a hundred years: the project of pulling out was made by the architect Mironovsky.

Note: when the huge colossus was pulled out, several ropes snapped, and it tilted dangerously. The case was saved by an unknown worker: having made his way under an unstable hanging object, he installed supports that held the structure while the ropes were changed.

In mid-August 1836, the "tsar" was finally pulled out of the pit and placed on a specially built bronze pedestal. The whole process was led by the architect of St. Isaac's Cathedral Auguste (August) Montferrand: he already had experience in lifting weights to significant heights. He also created a copper cross, then gilded the structure itself.

Today there is a commemorative plaque on the pedestal. It specifies Short story, creation period and time of unmold.

Further destiny

A piece weighing 11.5 tons that broke away from the main structure during the Trinity fire

Of course, no one wanted to lose such a huge and long-suffering colossus, and therefore several times they raised the issue of soldering the split off piece. But all this was just talk: the spike would completely distort the sound, and therefore it would be meaningless.

During the Second World War, this attraction turned into a communications center: signalmen of the Kremlin regiment were hiding inside it. To prevent enemy bombers from noticing it, the structure was painted, and after the victory it was wiped off again.

Curious legend

Despite the fact that the fate of the foundry art monument is interesting in itself, many did not think this was enough.

Peter I, the last Tsar of All Russia (from 1682) and the first Emperor of All Russia (from 1721)

There were incredible rumors among people about him. Many believed that the bell was cast much earlier, even before Peter I came to the throne, and even successfully raised to the bell tower.

When, after the victory over the Swedes near Poltava, all the bells of the country began to ring, the "Tsar" could not even budge.

Angry, the king sent a company of soldiers, but they only ripped out his tongue, not making a single sound. The people gathered in the square began to laugh, shouts were heard that Tsar Peter would have to yield to the stubborn one.

Perth I, who was standing on the bell tower, was furious and struck with all his might with a club at this landmark. Because of the impact, a piece bounced off and fell to the ground, even went deep into it, from where it was taken out only after several decades.

Good to know: Among the Old Believers, there was an opinion that when the Last Judgment comes, the monument to foundry art will fly into the air by itself, and its ringing will be heard, even though it will be without a tongue.

This attraction is known not only to Muscovites, but also to many tourists. Huge and completely useless, he lived interesting life, although he never rang, and was even able to help his country during the war, although not in the most usual way.

Watch a video in which the historian briefly tells the story of the creation and the further fate of the Tsar Bell:

Blacksmiths have always been considered special people. After all, they have an almost magical ability to give any shape to metal. And there is something divine in this. Therefore, the products of blacksmiths have dual properties - on the one hand, they defeat the dark forces, on the other hand, they are inextricably linked with these forces. Bells are a prime example of this duality.

Prayer in bronze

The first bells appeared in China more than three thousand years ago. They were slightly different in form from modern ones, but the meaning of the subject remained the same. They did not have a language, the sound was obtained when the bell was struck with a special mallet.
In the 4th century AD, bells were first used in Christian rituals. It happened in the following way: Saint Peacock saw in a dream that the bells of the field emit beautiful sounds. The shape of the flower served as the prototype for the musical instrument. In Russia, the bells appeared immediately after the adoption of Christianity - they were brought to us from Western Europe.
Why did the bells take root so quickly and became so popular among the people? Firstly, their ringing was associated with thunder, and thunder, as you know, has the ability to drive away evil spirits. Secondly, as an object so closely associated with the church rite, the bell was immediately endowed with many sacred and magical properties. Thirdly, the bell ringing itself, which sounded at a certain time of the day, inspired the idea of ​​the measuredness of life and helped to navigate in time.
One can talk for a long time about the magical properties of this item. For example, in Russia it was believed that the ringing of bells heals the sick, helps whoopes and holy fools, facilitates difficult childbirth, relieves deafness. A special plaque that covered the bell was carefully collected and smeared with sores and wounds.
During epidemics, the bells rang continuously - medieval doctors believed that they dispersed the heavy stuffy plague air, and "prescribed" to listen to their ringing as a medicine.

Community soul

Bells were often animated - they were endowed with human traits. For example, they sprinkled holy water, baptized and gave names - as a rule, in honor of the saints: As punishment for the bad ringing of the bell, they could tear off an ear, rip out the tongue, flog it with rods, or send it into exile. For example, when Tsarevich Dmitry died in Uglich, the local bell rang by itself, notifying people about it. For which he was whipped and sent into exile in Tobolsk, where he was considered miraculous. The peasants sincerely believed that he helped from childhood illnesses.
When a community was attacked, bells could alert people by ringing on their own or even speaking in a human voice. And if the city was ravaged, the bell could bleed out ...
The same was true for ship bell- he was generally considered the embodiment of the soul of the ship. The sailors were confident that the bell would ring on its own before the ship went under water. Changing the bell was strictly forbidden, and if the ship changed its name, the old bell with the old name remained on it. In the English town of Shropshire, there is a legend about a bell that, once at the bottom of a river, sometimes rings from there by itself.
In Russia, it was believed that at night churches become a haven for witches, devils and other evil spirits - just like in N. Gogol's story "Viy". His spirit also dwelt in the bell tower - it became a sorcerer, inveterate in this church and buried in the local cemetery. His ghost was doomed to guard the church bell.
In general, bells were credited with the ability to raise the dead from the graves with their ringing. It was believed, for example, that at midnight, with the last blow of the bell, the dead rise from the ground and go to the river to drink.

There are a number of other beliefs also associated with bells. Their ringing has been associated with thunder since ancient times, and thunder, in turn, is a harbinger of a rich harvest. Therefore, in Russia there was a sign - the first one who climbs the bell tower on Christ's day and rings the bell will have the best harvest this year. If with the first strike of the bell you started some business or, conversely, finished it with the last strike, this is a good omen. No wonder in Portugal it is customary on New Year's Eve to eat a grape with each bell strike. If you succeed in doing this, the year will be happy.
Little bells or bells also bring happiness if you wear them as an accessory on your clothes.

Interesting facts about bells

Wandering bell
There is something strange and mesmerizing about the bells. In Goethe's ballad The Wandering Bell, for example, a heavy metal instrument tries to cover the child, as if to eat him.
This terrible image is not accidental at all. Indeed, in the Middle Ages there was such a sophisticated execution - a person was killed with the help of a huge lead cap. The weight of the metal slowly broke a person's bones or choked him. And the victim died a painful death.
The symbol of mortal life
In later times, when the significance of the church diminished, the ringing of bells acquired a slightly different meaning. Since they were used to designate time, it became a reminder of the frailty of life and the transience of the human lot.
This is vividly reflected in the lines of the 17th century English poet John Donne: “The death of every Man belittles me too; for I am one with all Humanity, and therefore do not ask for whom the bell tolls: it tolls for You, "he writes. Later, Ernest Hemingway called it that - "For Whom the Bell Tolls" - his best novel, and took a quote from John Donne as an epigraph to it.
Chakra theory
Scientists have recently received unexpected confirmation of the ancient belief that many diseases can be cured with the help of bells. They found that the sound itself during the bell ringing moves along a unique spiral trajectory and becomes fatal to pathogens.
According to the ancient theory, the control of chakras - special formations that redistribute different types energy, - produced with the help of mantras - that is, certain combinations of sounds. And the sound made by the bell corresponds exactly to the mantra. Thus, you can also control your chakras with the help of bell ringing. It enters into resonance with the energy system of the body, activates its vitality, contributes to the harmonization of feelings and consciousness.

The most famous bells

Mingyn- this bell is in the center of Burma. Its weight ranges from 90 to 100 tons.
Bell in Kyoto- the largest bell in Japan. It was cast in 1632 and weighs 468S pounds.
Big Ben- the symbol of Great Britain. "Big Ben" - and this is how the name of the bell is translated - was christened in honor of its creator, master Benjamin Hall. Its height is more than two meters, and its diameter is more than three. Since 1859, he has rung every hour in the bell tower of the English Parliament.
Liberty Bell- symbolizes America's struggle for independence from Great Britain. It was cast in 1751 and weighs. 2080 pounds (about a ton), and it consists of an alloy of copper (70%) and tin (25%). The ringing of the bell marked the proclamation of America's Declaration of Independence in 1776.
Today the Liberty Bell is located in Philadelphia in a purpose-built building. Every year on July 4, in honor of the commemoration of independence, they call him, observing, however, great caution.
Bell in Beijing- the largest bell in China. It was cast more than 500 years ago, its weight is 46.5 tons, its height is 6.75 m, and its diameter is 3.3 m. The outer and inner surfaces of the bell are covered with Buddhist sayings, the total volume of which is 227 thousand hieroglyphs.
St. Peter- the largest bell in Germany and all of Europe. It was cast in 1923 and weighs 24 tons.
- the largest bell in the world. Installed in the Moscow Kremlin. Weight over 200 tons, height (with ears) 6.14 m, diameter 6.6 m. Cast from bronze by I.F. Motorin (the most outstanding foundry worker of his time) and his son Mikhail in 1733-1735 Decorations, portraits and inscriptions on the bell were made by V. Kobelev, P. Galkin, P. Kokhtev, P. Serebryakov and P. Lukovnikov. The Tsar Bell is an amazing piece of Russian bell art. It is unmatched in both size and weight.
True, the Tsar Bell was never rung.
After casting, the Tsar Bell remained in the pit in which it was cast. He stood on an iron trellis set on twelve oak piles driven into the ground. A wooden floor was made over the pit. On May 20, 1737, a fire broke out in the Kremlin, and the wooden forests that surrounded the giant burst into flames. They poured water over the fire, and the bell cracked because of the temperature difference. A piece weighing 11 tons broke off from it.
In 1836 the Tsar Bell was installed on a pedestal near the Ivan the Great Bell Tower.
Two more bells are known under the same name, cast at the beginning of the 17th century and in 1654 (about 130 tons). The latter crashed in a fire in 1701, and its scrap was used to cast the last Tsar Bell.

On November 28, 1734, the most unpleasant event happened in Moscow - during the casting of the Tsar Bell, two casting furnaces went out of order at once. As a result, the bell was still cast, but its fate was not easy, however, like many other Russian bells. In Russia, bells were raised not only with trepidation on the bell towers and listened to the "crimson" ringing. They were exiled, tortured, and in the heat of theomachy they were thrown from the belfries, smashed and sent to be melted down. So the most Interesting Facts about Russian bells.

The first thousand-meter bells suffered from fires

"Thousands" in Russia were called bells, the weight of which reached thousands of poods (16 tons and more). The first such bell was cast in 1522 under Ivan III by the master Nikolai Nemchin and installed on the wooden belfry of the Moscow Kremlin.
In 1599, already in the reign of Boris Godunov, the Great Assumption Bell was cast, the weight of which exceeded 3 thousand poods. The bell died in 1812, when the French, who captured Moscow, blew up the belfry attached to the Ivan the Great bell tower. In 1819, the foundryman Yakov Zavyalov managed to recreate this bell. And today a giant bell weighing 64 tons and a diameter of 4 meters 20 cm can be seen on the Assumption Belfry of the Moscow Kremlin. The bell tongue weighs 1 ton 700 kg, and its span is 3 meters 40 cm. The Great Assumption Bell on Bright Week announces the Easter message to all monasteries in Moscow.
Big Assumption Bell. Assumption Belfry. Kremlin

Big Assumption Bell. Kremlin

The largest bell in the world was cast in Russia

In the 17th century, Russian bell craftsmen again distinguished themselves: in 1655, Alexander Grigoriev cast a bell weighing 8 thousand poods (128 tons). In 1668, the bell, which even foreigners called the one and only in the world, was raised on the belfry. According to eyewitness accounts, at least 40 people were required to swing the bell tongue, which weighed more than 4 thousand kilograms. The bell rang in the Kremlin until 1701, when it fell and shattered during one of the fires.

The Empress Anna Ioannovna decided to recreate the largest bell in the world, increasing its weight to 9 tons. Foreign masters declared that it was impossible. The master of the bells Motorina decided to take on this charitable work. The father started the business. But something went wrong, and at once two foundry furnaces went out of order. The master fell asleep with excitement and soon died, but his son successfully completed what he had begun.

Tsar Bell Anthology

The bell was ready in 1735. 6.6 meters in diameter, 6.1 meters in height and weighing about 200 tons (12327 pounds), it was named "Tsar Bell". But after 2 years, during another fire, the shed above the bell pit caught fire, the bell glowed, and when water got into the pit, it cracked. It all ended with a piece weighing 11.5 tons split off from it. Only 100 years later, the "Tsar Bell" was installed on a pedestal near the Ivan the Great Bell Tower on the territory of the Kremlin. Where you can see it today.

During the Civil War, the Tsar Bell was depicted on 1,000-ruble bills issued in the Crimea by General Denikin. The people called this money "bells".

Some bells in Russia were exiled and even tortured

Bells in Russia were not only admired, some of them were severely punished. So for "incitement" to a riot in 1591, when Tsarevich Dmitry died, the Uglich bell was punished. He was first thrown from the Spasskaya bell tower, then the executioners used torture - they cut off his ear, pulled out his tongue and punished him with 12 lashes. This seemed a little, and the bell, which at that time was 300 years old, was sent into exile in Siberia.

It is a well-known fact that in 1681 the "Nabatny" bell, which was in the Moscow Kremlin, was "exiled" to the Nikolo-Korelsky Monastery to Nikolaev because it woke Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich with its ringing at night.

The most famous Russian bell ringer distinguished 1701 sounds

Konstantin Konstantinovich Saradzhev

Konstantin Konstantinovich Saradzhev is an Armenian by birth and the most famous of the Russian bell ringers. This is a person with perfect pitch, and some have argued that he has "colored" hearing. Sarajev clearly distinguished 1701 sounds within one octave. He could hear how every thing, stone and person sounds, even if he was silent. According to the legends, Pythagoras had the same unique rumor. In any case, this is what his disciples said.

Saradzhev owns the musical notation of 317 sound spectra of the largest bells of Moscow churches, cathedrals and monasteries. Today this manuscript is kept in the Danilov Monastery.
Konstantin Konstantinovich Saradzhev - the most famous Russian bell ringer

Konstantin Konstantinovich Saradzhev - the most famous Russian bell ringer

The sound of Sarajev's bells was more like music than ringing. The bell ringer constantly improved his methods of ringing, dreamed that someday bells would sound not only in church acoustics and that a concert belfry would appear in Russia. But in 1930, church bells were banned in the USSR altogether, and Saradzhev's dreams were not destined to come true.

The power of the Soviets destroyed almost all the bells of Orthodox Russia in a few years

At the beginning of the 20th century in the Russian Empire there were 39 bells - "thousanders", and in the 1990s there were only 5 of them. Small and medium bells were almost completely destroyed.
The Soviet government had a very negative attitude towards the church, including bells. All churches were transferred to the disposal of Local Councils, which could "use them for their intended purpose, based on public and state needs." In 1933, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee established a plan for the procurement of bell bronze for the republics and regions, and within literally several years almost all the bells were destroyed. How much - no one can say.

Some bells perished with temples, some were deliberately destroyed, others went to "the needs of industrialization." Even the bells that were cast for the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Ivan the Great, St. Isaac's Cathedral, Valaam, Solovetsky, Savvino-Storozhevsky and Simonov monasteries and thousands more churches throughout Russia did not pass the sad fate. In 1929 the bell was removed from the Kostroma Assumption Cathedral weighing 1200 poods. As a result, not a single bell remained in Moscow.
Destruction

Destruction

Destruction

It is known that some of the bells were sent to such large construction sites as Dneprostroy and Volkhovstroy for technical needs. Boilers for canteens were made from them. In 1932, the Moscow authorities cast high reliefs from 100 tones of church bells for the new building of the library named after Lenin.

The return of the bells

Experts say that it is impossible to restore the bell, but you can cast a copy of it in terms of sound and weight. Recently, the famous "thousand-meter" units began to be returned to Russia. Thus, the Trinity Evangelists have already returned to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra - the Tsar, Godunov and Kornouhy bells, which in 1930 were thrown from the bell tower by atheists. The largest bell cast in Russia today is the Great Bell of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, recreated in the 1990s. Its weight is 27 tons.