Frankfurt am Main (D - HE) Die Glocken des Kaiserdomes St. Bartholomäus

This video presents the bells e0-a0-c#1 -e1 -f#1 -g#1 -a1 -h1 -c#2 of St Bartholomew's Cathedral in Frankfurt (Main). It is a set of bells from the 19th century, which must be considered one of the few completely preserved ensembles from the historicism period in Germany. ➥ After the great cathedral fire in 1867, it took until 1877 for the tower to be repaired. To mark the occasion, new bells were cast. The Dresden bell founder Hermann Große was commissioned in 1876 to cast a new peal of bells comprising a total of nine bells. He was instructed to model the sound of the large bell [1] on that of the Erfurt Gloriosa from 1497. Große more or less adapted the other bells to this shape and very heavy bell shape, creating one of the largest bronze chimes in Germany, weighing over 23.3 tonnes. The large bell, also called ‘Gloriosa’, is still the largest surviving bronze bell from the 19th century in Germany. Miraculously, all nine bells of the main peal survived the wartime conscriptions of the 20th century and are thus one of the few completely preserved peals from this period. To this day, the peal still rings from the original bell system, which divides the bells into two separate bell chambers. This allows the Gloriosa to dominate the entire peal at will, as it hangs significantly lower than the eight smaller bells in the octagon of the upper belfry, being the only one in the lower belfry and equipped with enormous sound windows. When rung, the Gloriosa has a monumental presence that many other bells of this size do not (or no longer) possess.