Saint Peter's bell , referred to in the Colognian dialect as Decke or Dekke Pitter ) and in common parlance as Dicker Pitter , is the largest bell in Cologne Cathedral. It was cast in 1923 by Heinrich Ulrich in Apolda and hangs in the belfry of the south tower. With a weight of approximately 24,000 kilograms , a clapper weighing ~700 kilograms and a diameter of 322 centimetres , it's the second largest freely swinging ringable bell in the world, after the bell of the People's Salvation Cathedral.
When the bell was cast in 1923, the bell-founder refused to take German marks as a payment because of the hyper-inflation. Instead the Cathedral Chapter paid 5000 US dollars.
The predecessor of the bell was the "Emperor's Bell" or Gloriosa of 1873 which at 27,180 kilograms was even heavier than the St. Peter's bell. In 1918 it was melted down, because of the poor sound quality and the inadequate tone. Its metal was used for war purposes. During its thirty-year life it had regularly been put out of service to attempt to fix the inappropriate sound. Because of this the bell was nicknamed Große Schweigerin, or "big silence".
Source: Wikipedia.org
Copyright: Creative Commons 3.0
Address: Köln, Germany
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