More than 580-year Old Bell Chimes the Time in the City of Kyustendil

More than 580-year old bell chimes the time in the South Bulgarian city of Kyustendil. It is located on the building of the municipality and has not stopped working for hundreds of years, which makes it unique. Historians say it is the only oldest working bell in Southeast Europe. It is known that there are 10 similar bells, but they are on display in museum collections.

The unique bell known as Radoslav's bell dates back to 1429. It was originally placed on St.Nikola church, which was not preserved. Later in 1665, it was placed on the clock tower in Kyustendil, the historian Yavor Mitov explained.

He says that after the clock tower was destroyed, in 1894 the bell was moved to the roof of the pedagogics school, which currently is the building of Kyustendil municipality. It is exceptionally rare to see such bells on a building, because the medieval bells of those times are most commonly found during archaeological excavations. The bell in Kyustendil is the only one that still works.

The bell is struck multiple times to count out the hours thanks to a clock mechanism to which it is connected.

Historians have calculated that over the period of hundreds of years the bell has made over 7 million strokes. The melodious sound is due to its unique bronze and 5 centimetre wall thickness. Experts concern that it is not known for how long it will continue to work. They hope that in the future, the unique bell will be removed from the building of the municipality to be explored more thoroughly, and then displayed in the city museum to preserve it as a valuable monument of culture.