For whom the bell tolls
By : Justyna Wrobel
New Year had a hollow ring to it in Krakow this year, especially for the city's campanologists Wawel Cathedral's famous Zygmunt bell failed to chime for the first time in 136 years.
Zygmunt is the namesake of King Zygmunt I Stary who commissioned Nuremberg bell maker Hans Beham to make the famous Krakow bell in 1520. And the following year, the city's residents heard the sound of the bell for the first time.
Since then, the bell has chimed almost without fail on religious days and holidays during good times and bad from its lofty residence in the cathedral's Zygmunt Tower. But last Christmas Zygmunt lost heart and stopped.
It was Wojciech Bochnak, a retired bell ringer and eager campanologist of 38 years, who first noticed that something was wrong with Zygmunt.
He said that on the first day of Christmas the bell didn't ring as usual, something was amiss, off-key and "unacceptable." On closer inspection Bochnak found a crack at the heart of the bell. Luckily, as well as bell ringing, Bochnak is also a specialist in metals at Krakow's National Museum.
He told the cathedral authorities that the heart of Zygmunt needed repairs and the word went out to Poland's bell makers that the nation's most famous bell needed urgent attention.
Janusz Felczynski is the owner of a well-known foundry near Przemysl in southeastern Poland and heir to the famous Felczynski family, which started casting bells in 1808.
Although the job of fixing Zygmunt is still up for grabs, he admitted he'd like the task. "It's lucky that only the heart was damaged," he said, adding that if the Zygmunt's body had been as damaged, nothing could save it.
He said the bell's fame stems largely from when Krakow was the capital of Poland. "After all it is the bell that was hanging in the capital and rang for the most important church holidays or important national events," Felczynski said. "Like, for instance, on the day that Karol Wojtyla became Pope."
But unfortunately Felczynski may not get the chance to fix Krakow's famous bell. Bochnak said that the most probable candidate to mend Zygmunt is the Krakow-based Metal Odlew, which will do the job for free.
Bochnak, however, still wants the veteran bell-casting dynasty to take a look at the problem. "I would at least like Felczynski to take a look at the heart, considering their professionalism at bell casting," Bochnak said.
Bochnak scoffs at the superstitious rumors that Zygmunt's silence spells impending doom for the nation. People gossip that the bell was damaged at the end of 1938 (it wasn't), and many said this heralded the forthcoming world war. "What people say is simply unbelievable," Bochnak said. "The damages are just the result of metal fatigue."
Low temperatures could be particularly responsible for damages during winter, and Bochnak added that damage also occurred in December 1864. "The chemical analysis (made later) of the heart showed that that the new heart was cast again, but the shape of it was an imitation of the old one," Bochnak said.
He admitted, however, that an incident in 1859 when the heart crashed into the basement of the tower had never been adequately explained. He said it was lucky that nobody was hurt: Zygmunt's heart weighs more than 100 kilograms.
The rest of Zygmunt weighs a hefty 9,000 kilograms, which is a weighty challenge for any dedicated bell ringer. "Twelve people have to do it together," Bochnak said. He said the bell usually chimes 22 times a year as well as during special occasions.
Although Bochnak has retired from bell ringing, Krakow's campanologists can be forgiven for doing a double take when pulling Zygmunt's ropes these days. The bell ringer that looks much like Bochnak is actually Bochnak's son, who has carried on the noble tradition. No doubt Bochnak junior is a dead ringer for the former veteran bell ringer.
