Fonderie Paccard

The bell foundry Paccard ( Fonderie Paccard ) was established in 1796 in the municipality Quintal near Annecy. The blacksmith Antoine Paccard ( born November 22, 1770 † June 6, 1830 ), mayor of Quintal, turned on the bell-founder Jean Baptiste Pitton of Carouge to the village church for a new bell as a replacement for the older, destroyed during the Revolution was to produce.

After this first cast led Antoine Paccard and his descendants the bell foundry. Around 1855, the family established the workshop in Annecy- le -Vieux. In the late 19th century, the company offered under Georges Paccard to various types of bells and thus gained worldwide reputation as a powerful supplier of bells. 1891 presented the biggest bell in France ago, called the Savoyard for the Basilique du Sacré -Coeur of Montmartre in Paris. With a weight of 18,835 kg and a height of 3.06 meters, it is still one of the largest bells around the world.

1914 poured the operation, the 16 -ton bell Joan of Arc for the Rouen Cathedral, which was destroyed during the bombing of the city in June 1944. In 1959 she was re-cast with a weight of ten tons.

Around the middle of the 20th century Paccard developed into a leading international manufacturer of carillons ( carillon ) and created among others the great Läuteanlagen the Tour Yolande in Chambery (70 bells), Berkeley University ( 68 bells), Douai (62 bells), Cathedral Saint Benigne, Dijon (56 bells), Basilica of Sainte -Thérèse in Lisieux (48 bells) and Princeton University ( 39 bells).

In 1950, the U.S. government ordered 54 bells on the model of the Liberty Bell, one for each of the capitals of the states in the United States.

In the late 20th century in Annecy the Millennium bell for Kentucky produced some unusually large bells, for example, a weight of 33 tons.

Since its inception, the company delivered around 120,000 bells. More recently designed and placed it also music installations for public space ago. Since 1989, the factory in Sévrier located on the outskirts of Annecy. At the new location and the Bell Museum Paccard Founded in 1984 found enough space.