Bell Museum (Valdai)

The Bell Museum in Valdai is the first museum in Russia devoted to bells, in the centre of the town of Valdai in Novgorod Oblast, on Truda Street. It opened in 1995 in the rotunda of the former Church of St Catherine the Great Martyr, an 18th-century Neoclassical monument, and is part of the Novgorod State United Museum-Reserve.

History

The round Church of St Catherine was built in 1786–1794 to a design by the architect Nikolai Lvov as the church of Empress Catherine II's travel palace, and the Empress herself paid for it. The rotunda is ringed by a colonnade; it is about 22 metres across, its central hall about 11 metres, and it rises some 30 metres to the top of the cross.

Later the building served as a beer bar and a warehouse, and during the Second World War as an observation post. It was listed as an architectural monument in 1920, restoration began in 1956–1957, and by 1961 the rotunda had its original appearance back. A local history museum then moved in.

Bells were first heard in the rotunda in 1980, when the exhibition "The Valdai Bell" opened for the Moscow Olympics. On 17 June 1995, during Valdai's 500th anniversary celebrations, the Bell Museum replaced it.

What to see

The museum tells the history of bells and bell casting in Russia and abroad, the techniques of bell ringing and the story of the Valdai harness bell. The exhibition works as a concert space: a visit comes with live ringing, the staff demonstrate ringing techniques and visitors may ring some of the bells themselves. There is also a collection of recordings of the best-known chimes.

The museum takes its exhibitions on the road: the show for the 200th anniversary of the shaft-bow bell travelled to Veliky Novgorod, Chudovo and Staraya Russa as well as Valdai, and bell exhibitions have also visited Ostashkov and Khvoynaya.

The Valdai bell

Bell casting in Valdai goes back to the Iversky Monastery, founded by Patriarch Nikon on Lake Valdai in 1653, around which many crafts grew up, bell founding among them. From the late 18th century local craftsmen cast small bells for coachmen's harnesses. Pieces by Filipp Tersky and Alexei Smirnov dated 1802 survive, and in 1816 the Smirnov workshop became a foundry that made both harness bells and large church bells.

In 1825 Fyodor Glinka wrote the verses that became a song about "the little bell, the gift of Valdai", and the founders began to cast the words "Gift of Valdai" on their bells. Once the St Petersburg–Moscow railway opened in the 1850s, the coaching trade declined and the harness bell craft with it.

Legends

A local tale says the first Valdai bells were copied from fragments of the Novgorod veche bell, which supposedly broke in Valdai: townspeople gathered the pieces and asked craftsmen to make copies for their homes.

Getting there

The museum stands in central Valdai, between Truda Street and Komsomolsky Avenue. Valdai lies on the M10 highway, about 400 km from Moscow and 300 km from St Petersburg, and the Lastochka train runs here from St Petersburg. Check opening hours and ticket prices on the Novgorod Museum-Reserve website before you go.