Today I would like to introduce the historic bells of the Protestant village church in Nostitz, a district of the town of Weißenberg on the eastern border of the Bautzen district. 0:00 - Photo gallery with outdoor shot 2:21 - Bell 3 4:02 - Bell 2 5:51 - Bell 1 7:50 - Full bell ringing The town, which is located in the Sorbian settlement area, was first mentioned in 1280. Until 1439 it was the ancestral seat of the Upper Lusatian noble family "von Nostitz". Since then, Nostitz was owned by the von Gersdorff family and the von Ziegler and Klipphausen family. The Sorbian culture of the town, which was once predominantly inhabited by Sorbs, has now largely disappeared from local life. Nostitz has around 180 inhabitants. There has probably always been a small chapel in the town, which was integrated into the castle complex and later belonged to the palace. After Nostitz had been a parish of Kittlitz since its founding, the then patrons von Gersdorff elevated the chapel to a parish church in 1587. 80 years later, the new patrons von Ziegler and Klipphausen had the old chapel replaced with a much larger church building, which still exists in its current form today. The building was completed in 1679. It is a choir tower church, so the tower is in the east. The nave has a flat ceiling and the choir has a groin vault. The baroque furnishings are mostly original. The wooden altar dates from 1680. On the predella you can see the Last Supper picture, above it the Crucifixion and above it the Entombment. These pictures are surrounded by twisted columns decorated with vine leaves. The pulpit with sounding board dates from the same year and shows depictions of the four evangelists on the richly decorated pulpit basket. There are also several epitaphs in the church, the largest of which is the one for Carl Gottlob von Ziegler and Klipphausen on the south side of the choir. Also worth mentioning in the choir is the patron's box on the north side. The organ facade dates from 1822. It contains an instrument made by Eule in 1915. In 1865/66 the church building was extended to the west. The tower contains another original piece of equipment, the bells. Three bells made by the Dresden maker and bell founder Andreas Herold in the 1670s have survived undamaged and still ring out from the historic, probably also original, bell cage. The individual bells were gradually acquired during the construction of the new church. The oldest is the middle bell from 1672, followed by the large one in 1676 and the small one in 1678. All bells are richly decorated, bear multi-line inscriptions as well as the coat of arms of the patron of Ziegler and Klipphausen (the small bell has a different coat of arms than the large ones, but still in the same vein) and the Herold foundry coat of arms. A few years ago, the middle bell was welded onto the striking ring. At the same time, all three bells were given their current paraboloid-shaped clappers (“umbrella clappers”). The Nostitz chimes are among the most valuable in Upper Lusatia due to the existence of three baroque bells from the same founder! The bells: Motif: fis'-ais'-cis'' (major triad) The description of inscriptions and decoration can be found in the video under the individual presentations. Bell 1 / Bronze / fis' +3.5 / 1676 / Andreas Herold, Dresden / 785 kg / 1,100 mm Bell 2 / Bronze / ais' ±0 / 1672 / Andreas Herold, Dresden / 406 kg / 883 mm Bell 3 / Bronze / cis'' -6 / 1678 / Andreas Herold, Dresden / 235 kg / 720 mm About the recording: All recordings were made separately on August 8, 2023. I would like to thank Ms. Wangler for making the recording possible! Sources: • Wikipedia article on the church and the town • Website of the parish: https://www.kirche-kittlitz-nostitz.de/ • Book “Bells in Saxony” by Rainer Thümmel, p. 48f., 338 • “The Bells of Upper Lusatia” by Edmund Brückner in the Niederlausitzer Magazin 1906, p. 185 (author of the file: H. Kairies) • Descriptive presentation of the older architectural and artistic monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. 34th issue: Amtshauptmannschaft Löbau by Cornelius Gurlitt 1910, p. 447-456