Church Bells Cast in Voronezh for Montenegro

Admiral St Fyodor Ushakov

N G Nikolaev

2005

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Church bells were cast in Voronezh for the Cathedral of St Fyodor Ushakov the Righteous Warrior (a famous and pious Russian admiral of the late 18th and early 19th century) in Montenegro. Russia helped Montenegro in the restoration of the cathedral, which is located near a town called Tivat. The bodies of Russian sailors who fled Russia after the Bolshevik takeover are buried at a cemetery near the church. In those years, Tivat was one of the debarkation points for White Russian émigrés of the first-wave. About 70,000 refugees arrived there after fleeing from Soviet Russia, and 200 of them stayed there forever. The carillon for the cathedral consists of 5 bells, the biggest weighing 400 kilogrammes (880 pounds). All the bells are ornamented with naval motifs. They’ll be operated by means of a computer, after the belfry receives a special signal, the bells will perform a melody. Montenegro shall receive the bells at the end of June.

Marina Anisimova, Deputy Director of the Vera Foundry in Voronezh, commented, “Our foundry cast 5 bells for the belfry of the Cathedral of St Fyodor Ushakov the Righteous Warrior in Tivat. The bells are practically ready for transportation; we only have to check the electronic equipment. The bells` decoration is very remarkable. Our artists were asked to create a special ornament using naval motifs”. During its 20-year history, the Vera Foundry has cast about 17,000 bells, which are hung not only in Russian towns, but, also in the USA, Japan, and Korea. The most popular work with the Voronezh foremen is the exact copy of the set of the bells of the Danilovsky Monastery in Moscow they cast for Harvard University. The copies were transported to the USA, whilst the original bells shall be returned to Russia this year.

27 June 2008

Ludmila Seliverstova

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=28940&cid=59&p=27.06.2008

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