With a day dedicated to bells and bell-making, the Centre for Building Heritage of the NTM Plasy joins the Summer Baroque Festival of the Pilsen Region on Saturday 22 July 2017. Visitors will be able to meet the well-known Czech bell-maker Petr Rudolf Manoušek, try out a number of activities in craft workshops, listen to a concert or taste the flavours of the Baroque. The highlight of the rich programme will be the blessing of the new bell, which was cast by the master bell-maker Petr R. Manoušek according to a Baroque model. The bell will be blessed by the Bishop of Pilsen, Mons. Tomáš Holub
The National Technical Museum has found a base for building its Centre of Building Heritage in Plasy, in the economic part of the former Cistercian monastery. The Centre is now in its second year and tries to convey the theme of building history to visitors. This year it has had a new bell cast, which will be blessed by the Bishop of Plzeň, Mons. Tomáš Holub.v “The voice of a bell is a sound that summons, connects, can warn, brings information, belongs to the landscape and to life. We would like to return it to the environment where it used to be, our goal is to make it not only a part of the exposition, but to fulfill its function in the premises of the Court of Building Crafts CSD Plasy. Moreover, we can assume that the Baroque bell, which became the model for the current one, actually belonged to the area of the farm yard of the Plasy monastery,” says Karel Ksandr, Director General of the National Technical Museum, with interest.
The original Baroque bell, which became the model for the new bell in Plzeň, came from the well-known Pricquey family bell workshop. It was cast in Klatovy in 1706 by Johannes Daniel Pricquey (1657-1730). The bell bears the initials and coat of arms of Eugen Tyttl, who represented the Cistercian monastery as its abbot from 1699 to 1738. It is no longer known where the bell was placed. It is preserved in the collections of the West Bohemian Museum in Pilsen, where it came into the museum collections at the beginning of the 20th century. The pleading Latin inscriptions on its mantle “Lightning and storm deliver us, Lord Jesus Christ” and “Hail and flood deliver us, Arch of the Covenant” give room for the idea that the bell may have been intended for the farmyard of the Plzeň monastery. Therefore, in 2017, the National Technical Museum had an exact replica of this baroque bell cast for the former farmyard of the Plzeň Monastery and will ring out anew within the Building Heritage Centre. The author of this bell replica is the well-known Czech bell-maker Petr Rudolf Manoušek.
“As laymen we had doubts about whether the bell was actually blessing or sanctifying,” admits Pavel Kodera, head of the CSD NTM Plasy. “In the end, the explanation is quite simple. When something is blessed, it is taken out of normal use for worship, whereas when something is blessed, it is called ‘blessing’, i.e. a ‘good word’ is spoken, which gives the thing, person, event a good direction. We appreciate the fact that it is the Bishop of Pilsen, Mons. Tomáš Holub.”
The Bell Ringing Day will take place on 22 July 2017 from 12.00 to 18.00 in the premises of the Court of Building Crafts of the NTM Centre of Building Heritage Plasy. The bell will be blessed by the Bishop of Pilsen Mons. Tomáš Holub at 15.00. The event is part of the Summer Baroque Festival of the Pilsen Region.
Press release 18 July 2017
Mgr. Kristýna Koderová
PR and Public Relations Department
Email: kristyna.koderova@ntm.cz
Tel.: 373 300 744 / Mob.: 777 710 802
National Technical Museum
Centre of Building Heritage Plasy
Pivovarská 5, 331 01 Plasy
www.muzeum-plasy.cz
www.ntm.cz
Mgr. Adam Dušek
Head of PR and Public Relations
Email: adam.dusek@ntm.cz
Mob.: 774 426 828
National Technical Museum
Kostelní 42, 170 00 Prague 7
www.ntm.cz
