*Location:

   Loreto Cloister Museum Tower
   Loretánské námestí
   Hradcany
   Praha (Prague), Czech Republic
   (formerly part of Czechoslovakia)
   LL: N 50.08925, E 14.39157

Site locator map
City locator maps and gazetteer page

*Carillonist:

   (unknown)

*Contact:

   Loreto Praha
   Loretánské nám.7/100
   118 00 Praha 1 - Hradcany
   T/F: 220-516-740
   T: 737 639 049
   E: loreta /@/ loreta DOTcz
      reditel /@/ loreta DOTcz

*Schedule:

   Hour strike on bass bell (#1), quarter
   strike on #4, both hung in lantern
   above the clock stage.
   Autoplay of a Marian tune on the hour.
   Concerts 1530 every Saturday

*Remarks:

   Bells by Claude Fremy, cast 1683-91;
   oldest extant Dutch carillon outside
   the Netherlands.  Installation was
   completed by local clockmaker Peter
   Neumann in 1695; unknown whether that
   included the keyboard.
   13 trebles have duplicate hammers.
   One bass bell recast by Lisiak in 1747,
   then replaced along with another
   (#2 & 4) by Peter Manousek in 1994.
   Three small bells, badly out of pitch,
   not connected to drum or present
   piano-style keyboard, though clappers
   and hammers remain in place.

*Technical data:

   Traditional carillon of 30 bells
   Pitch of heaviest bell is C# in the treble octave
   Keyboard range:     C E 27/    C C   
   Transposition is up 13 semitone(s), i.e., from C to C#
   There are two missing bass semitones
   The presence or absence of a practice console is unknown
   2 bells were recast or replaced in 1994
     by the maker cited in Remarks above
   Prior history:
     In 1747, some bells were recast or replaced
       with bells made by the maker cited in Remarks above
       (0 bells remain from that work.)
       Keyboard range was:     C F   /    C C   
     In 1690, the complete instrument of 30 bells was installed
       by the maker cited in Remarks above
       (28 bells remain from that work.)
   Auxiliary mechanisms: M27   
   Tower details not available
   Year of latest technical information source is 2010

The Loreto Website (in English and Czech) opens with a large photo of the cloister buildings taken at belfry level (perhaps by a drone?), in which the bells and cabin can be clearly seen.  Click the bell photo to see a closer photo of the clock and bells.  The Czech version of this page has also a gallery of five photos that can be enlarged.

News article (8 Dec 2021) about a forthcoming change in the automated music has two photos of the bell tower.

This carillon is mentioned in the English version of a lecture (PDF) given to the WCF Congress in Antwerp 2014 by Laura Meilink, covering the history of Hemony & Fremy among the bellfounders of Amsterdam.

Stock photo of the belfry and clock; scroll down for more photos of the building.

Where the initial phase of this work lies in the sequence of output of miscellaneous bellfoundries, in this region and in the world.
Where the second phase of this work lies in the sequence of output of miscellaneous bellfoundries, in this region and in the world.
Where the final phase of this work lies in the sequence of output of miscellaneous bellfoundries, in this region and in the world.

Ranking among all European traditional carillons by pitch (weight).
Ranking among all European traditional carillons by size (number of bells).
Ranking among all European traditional carillons by year of completion.

Index to all tower bell instruments in Czech Republic.

   This page was built from the database on 14-Oct-24
   based on textual data last updated on 2024/07/23
   and on technical data last updated on 2020/04/10