Tsar Nicholas II Bell Established in the Urals - One of Russia's Largest

  The Tsar Nicholas II Bell - which depicts the images of the Holy Royal Martrs - weighing 16.5 tons was installed earlier this week in the bell tower of the Transfiguration Cathedral in St. Nicholas Monastery in Verkhoturye (Sverdlovsk region), a major spiritual center in the Urals. The bell is the third largest in the Archdiocese of Yekaterinburg and one of the twenty largest bells in Russia.

The installation of the bell has been heralded as an historic event, after overcoming numerous obstacles. The bell was delivered to the monastery back in January, however, it’s enormous size was too large to fit into the bell tower passage. As the cathedral is designated an architectural monument, any alterations to the structure had to wait for government approvals and permits to increase the size of the passage. Finally, on August 4th, the bell was hoisted by a giant crane and mounted on the central beam of the bell tower.

The creation of the main bell for the Verkhotursky Monastery was adopted six years ago, a joint decision of the church and regional authorities. The Tsar Nicholas II Bell was produced by the Ural factory Pyatkova in the city of Kamensk. The total cost of the Tsar Nicholas II Bell was nearly 13 million rubles. Nearly half of the money collected - about 6 million rubles - plus the copper and tin was provided by the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company (UMMC).

According to Archdeacon Dmitry Bazhanov, “with the main bell now in place, work can proceed on the installation of another 12 bells”, at the St. Nicholas Monastery in Verkhoturye. The remaining 12 bells, each weighing from 6 kg to 1140 kg, will be installed over the next 4 to 6 weeks. Once installed and the intricate ringing system arranged, the Verkhotursky bell tower will be one of the best in the Yekaterinburg diocese, and one of the finest bell towers of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Source: Pravoslavie.ru