Past and present
The history of carillons in St. Catherine’s church in Gdańsk dates back to 1738 when a 35-bell instrument, cast by Nicolas Derck in Hoorn (the Netherlands) was installed. Sadly, a fire in the tower caused by a thunderstruck destroyed the instrument in 1905. The citizens of Gdańsk almost immediately started to collect money for a new instrument and in 1910 a 37-bell carillon, cast by the Schilling bell foundry from Apolda (Germany), was installed. This instrument was not spared by the war: in 1942, on Göring’s order, it was sent away to be melted for war purposes. Luckily, 28 bells were saved. Today, they are part of a 36-bell carillon in Lübeck.
Thus, after WWII Gdańsk turned from a thriving city with 3 carillons into ruins without any tower instrument left… Later, a former Gdańsk citizen, Hans Eggebrecht (most of the German-speaking citizens were displaced to Germany at the end of the war and later) started a private initiative. Eggebrecht decided to give back to Gdańsk one of its instruments. He started collecting money from German and Polish institutions and as a result, on September 1, 1989, the 50th anniversary of the beginning of WWII in Gdańsk, a new carillon cast by Eijsbouts was consecrated.
The name of the bourdon is Peace and Reconciliation. Other bells are dedicated to the victims of WW II (War victims, Piasnitz victims, Maximilian Kolbe etc), important persons from Gdańsk and Poland (e.g. Andreas Stendel, Antoni Lendzion, Pfarrer at St. Catharine Friedrich Reimer, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński etc).
Initially, the instrument consisted of 37 bells and played only automatically. In 1998, 12 bells and a manual playing action were added and on November 28 ,1998 the first post-war carillon concert was performed by Gert Oldenbeuving from The Netherlands. In 2006, a new bourdon bell was added – Bb named Catherine.
Facts and figures
| Number of bells | 50 |
| Total weight of the bells | ca. 17,000 kg |
| Weight of the bourdon | 2835 kg |
| Pitch of bourdon | Bb, connected to Bb in the keyboard |
| Bell-founders | Eijsbouts |
| Manual playing system | baton-type keyboard |
| Automatic playing system | electro-pneumatic (currently not working) |
| Carillonneur | Monika Kaźmierczak |
| Regular recitals | every Friday from 11 am till 11.40 am and on special occasions |
| Summer concerts | Gdańsk Carillon Festival on Fridays in July and August at 8.30 pm with guest carillonneurs |
| Accessibility of the tower | from the last weekend of April until 30 September. Opening hours are available at https://muzeumgdansk.pl/en/wizyta-w-muzeum-gdanska/departments/ |
Significant inscription
PAX ET RECONCILATIO, POKÓJ I POJEDNANIE, FRIEDEN UND VERSÖHNUNG
(Peace and Reconciliation)
Inscription on bell # 2
The whole list of peace and memorial inscriptions is available at www.carillongdansk.pl/o-carillonach/#carillonkatarzyny)