#423 Czech Republic...Thanks Robert!

The 7.50kc stamp was issued in 2005 for the Handicraft relics series featuring two bells: one from BENEŠOV 1322 and another from HAVLÍCKUV BROD 1335.

The voices of bells have accompanied our everyday life for almost five thousand years. Even though they are almost hidden from our sight, they measure our time, announce the arrival of holidays, sound the alarm, invite for prayers, accompany us also on our last way. Their voice did not change throughout the thousands of years, it still evokes the same emotions in us as it did in our predecessors. The shape of bells did not change either, nor did the old craft of bell-founding. Bells are founded of bronze in the same way as they used to be. A bell sounds with many different, unevenly sonorous tones which have to chime in harmoniously. In addition to the musical aspect bells have also an important artistic aspect; they bear inscriptions and plastic decorations of artistic value.

The bell from the belfry in Benešov by the ruined Minor Franciscan monastery from the 13th century; this is the oldest bell from 1322, signed "Rudger".

The bell from the belfry of the dean´s church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Havlíckuv Brod, dated 1300, 1305, or most recently 1335 according to a different interpretation of the Latin abbreviations. These two bells represent the oldest relics of the highly developed bell-founding craft in the territory of the Czech Republic.