Spectacular, hot and arcane - bell-casting has a century-long tradition in Tirol.
Two bell casters on the Grassmayr House in Habichen; fresco dating back to 1633.
It is not exactly known when the first bell that was cast in Tirol. The oldest known document dates from 1357 and shows that a Master Walcher and his son, both residents of Innsbruck, cast to bells for the town of Marling near Meran. Since it is very unlikely that those two started the business of bell casting in Tirol, it is fair to presume that there had been others before them and that bell casting goes back much further. It probably started with the casting of smaller objects like pots, mortars etc. which eventually led to the art of bell casting.
Bell casting really started to take off in Tirol around 1450, when large mountains of copper, the main ingredient of high quality bells, was mined in Schwaz. Large, almost factory-like, bell foundries sprouted up, most of them in the greater Innsbruck area. In all honesty it has to be said that although these factories did cast beautiful bells, there main source of income were cannons: under Emperor Maximilian I. Tirol was the “armory” of the Habsburg empire. The bell foundries’ true “masterpieces” therefore did not carry the names of saints and/or women, but were baptized "Cruel Lion", "Wait And Whistle" and "Leopard of Wilten". And instead of bringing their beautiful call across narrow cobble stones streets the brought the sound of death …
Bell casting at Grassmayr - being there is a privilege! © Bakay
The above-mentioned cannons were cast by Peter Löffler in Büchsenhausen (an old palace above Innsbruck). But Löffler was more than just a weapon producer, he was also a highly-talented in the art of bell casting and art casting. Löffler created the coat of arms for the 61 countries that Maximilian ruled and which decorated the bell in the Schwaz Parish (1503), and the striking statue of Emperor Ferdinand of Portugal in Innsbruck’s Imperial Church.
Around 1650, when Tirol started to lose its prominent position within the Habsburch realm, the large bell foundries, too, started to lose their importance. Most went bankrupt and therefore created space for smaller manufacturers who had little or nothing to do with the production of arms. One of them was the Grassmayr foundry from the small hamlet of Habichen in Ötztal. Founded in 1599, the Grassmayr Bell Foundry is probably one of Tirol’s oldest family-run establishments and also one of its most renowned – not just within Tirol, but worldwide.
In addition to this famous bell foundry, there are still several small ones around which specialized in the production of “household items” such as cow bells, horse bells, house bells, coats of arms, etc. One of them is the iron foundry Lugmair in Waidring in Tirol’s Unterland region. The foundry has an open-door day once a week and visitors can watch the workmen at their task and even try their own hand at iron casting.
Freeride World Tour Fieberbrunn
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