Sigismund Bell :: Krakow
The Royal Sigismund Bell (Polish: Królewski Dzwon Zygmunt or Dzwon Zygmunta) is the largest of the five bells hanging in the Sigismund Tower of the Wawel Cathedral in the Polish city of Kraków. It was cast in 1520 by Hans Behem and named after its patron, Sigismund I, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, who commissioned it. The bell weighs almost 13 tons (28 thousand pounds) and requires 12 bell-ringers to swing it. It tolls on special occasions, mostly religious and national holidays, and is regarded as one of Poland’s national symbols.
The Sigismund Bell is operated manually by pulling ropes attached to its yoke. It takes 12 men, six on either side, to swing the bell. The task requires strength, skill, and caution. While swinging, the bell often pulls the ringers up from the floor; in the interwar period, one ringer was accidentally killed when the bell pushed him out of a window.
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