A ceremony marking the exchange of historic Danilov bells for their exact replicas made by «The Link of Times» Foundation will take place in Harvard University, USA, on July, 8.
July, 2, 2008. The last bell from historic Danilov bells ensemble is going to be removed from Lowell House tower during the solemn bell-exchange ceremony on Tuesday, July 8th.
The most ancient bell from the ensemble, the «Tsarsky» bell, weighing 523 kg, is going to be lowered to the ground. After this, the honorable guests of the ceremony will have an opportunity to strike the «Tsarsky» bell. Among them Viktor Vekselberg, President of Trustee Council of Cultural-historical Foundation «The Link of Times», Archimandrite Aleksey, Father Superior of Moscow St Daniel Monastery, Drew Faust, President of Harvard University, Vitaly Churkin Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations and others.
People in Russia will be able to witness the lowering of the bell on-line on the Internet site www.danilovbells.ru via web-camera set in front of Lowell House tower.
In a course of the ceremony the tripartite agreement between the Cultural-Historical Foundation “the link of times”, Moscow St. Daniel Monastery and Harvard University about the exchange of historical Danilov bells for their exact replicas will be signed. On this day the visitors at Harvard will have a unique opportunity to see both bell ensembles at the same time – the new one, ordered by “The Link of Times” Foundation from the the foundry LLC “Vera” in Voronezh, Russia, and the historical ensemble from St. Daniel’s Monastery (except for the “the Weekday Bell», that has been formerly located on Harvard Business school tower and was returned to Russia on September 12, 2007
A solemn public prayer of orthodox tradition will be held by Father Superior of St Daniel Monastery Archimandrite Aleksey for the first time in Harvard marking the bell-exchange ceremony.
According to Viktor Vekselberg, President of Trustee Council of «The Link of Times» Foundation, “the bells became the symbol of cultural and historical commonality between USA and Russia. Now, when returning to Russia, the bells, surely, will keep the memory about their stay in Harvard and from now on will ring about the friendship between our countries».
After the ceremony the historic bells will be transported to New York from where they will be shipped to Russia. It is notable that the way back almost exactly repeats the way the bells took when they were leaving Russia.
It is expected that the ship with the historic bell-ensemble will arrive at Saint-Petersburg in early August. After that the bells are going to be taken to Moscow where the ceremony of passing the bells to the Russian Orthodox Church will take place.
The first attempts to return the unique ensemble of bells were undertaken in the mid-1980s. Marked progress in implementation of the problem was outlined only in 2004, when the founder of the Cultural-Historical Foundation “The Link of Times” Viktor Vekselberg responded to the request of His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All-Russia Alexey II and took upon himself all expenses on returning Danilov bells to St. Daniel’s Monastery. At present the foundation “The Link of Times” implements all stages of the project. The first of 18 ancient bells had been returned to Moscow on September 12, 2007, the Day of St. Daniel.
In 1930s 18 bells of St. Daniel’s monastery, hardly escaping destruction, were sold abroad at the price of scarp metal. Professor of Harvard University, Thomas Wittemore, acting on the commission of Charles Richard Crane, the American manufacturer, who was deeply interested in Russia, saved the unique bells from complete loss. From then on Danilov bells were placed on Harvard University Campus, where several buildings were reconstructed for them. The Russian bells invariably ring for a quarter of an hour every Sunday and on holidays. Moreover, the bell-ringing can be heard on the eve of football matches of the University team, which is also one of Harvard’s “sacred” things. According to Harvard’s alumnae, in a course of more than 70 years the bells became an integral part of the University life. That is why it had been decided to substitute the historical belfry with the exact replicas of the bells casted in Russia
Specifically for assistance to the project of returning Danilov bells, the representatives of Moscow St. Daniel’s Monastery and the Cultural-Historical foundation “The Link of Times” launched the web-site, holding exhaustive full information on the project. The web-site is www.danilovbells.com
To the attention of mass media representatives:
For all questions please contact:
8 (495) 975 02 40 – Andrey Shtorkh, official representative of the Cultural-Historical Foundation “The Link of Times”
8 (495) 720- 49–99 (ext. 5718) – Alexander Petrov, the deputy of the official representative of the Cultural-Historical Foundation “The Link of Times”
+7 (916) -836–39–50 – Daria Ezerova, press-secretary of St. Daniel’s Monastery
8–101–917–628–1867 – Edward Mermelshtein, director of the office of the Cultural-Historical Foundation “The Link of Times” in the USA
