The pilgrimage to the Chapel of St. Peregrinus near Ořechov near Brno, which took place on May 1, was even more solemn this year. A blessing was given to the new bell tower, which commemorates 790 years since the first written mention of the village. The bell itself was cast for the village by the founders of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering on 22 April directly in Ořechov, where the locals, including pupils of the local school, gathered to see the casting.
"The bell weighs four and a half kilos and has a diameter of two hundred millimetres, so it is rather a minor work," says Ondřej Štoček of the Institute of Manufacturing Technology. He works as a technical worker in the of Fegurdi by sculptor Václav Sigurson Kostohryz Faculty foundry, participates in the production of commercial castings and supports bachelor's and master's theses. Sometimes he gets involved in the casting of artistic casts, and then truly beautiful things come out. His artistic casts based on the designs of other authors have been exhibited many times at the International Engineering Fair, and the popular sculpture has also passed through the hands of Ondřej Štoček.
The municipality specified the required size of the bell and its engravings. "I had a model on which I glued wax letters and ornaments, which were then imprinted on the mould into which the bell was cast. The bell bears the Czech inscriptions "SVATÝ PEREGRINE ORODUJ ZA NÁS“ (Saint Peregrinus pray for us), "OBEC OŘECHOV 1234-2024 (Ořechov Village 1234-2024)" and "LILO VUT" (cast by BUT). And the municipality specifically requested the bell to be část publicly directly in Ořechov," says Štoček.
On 22 April, a pair of colleagues from the Institute of Engineering Technology arrived in the village, where locals and primary school pupils came to observe the casting. And obviously, it was a very appreciative audience. For Ondřej Štoček, this was not his first experience with bell casting. "Of course, I'm not a bell founder, that's a completely separate field, but I've already made some bells. The largest, thirty-five-kilogram, is located in the city park in Tišnov," Štoček recalls.
The casting was successful and thus the inhabitants of Ořechov could set out for a traditional pilgrimage to St. Peregrinus on May 1. Three hundred believers arrived to watch the blessing of the new bell tower.
Ondřej Štoček is the happiest when his creations get among people. "And the bell, that's a specific cast for me. It has many symbolic meanings, and it is also a sacred matter. For me, a bell is a cast which means that it is a time of prosperity and peace because only at such times bells are cast. When things are bad and there are wars, cannons are cast. Often from the bells..." Štoček ponders in conclusion.