Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock Bell Foundry Gescher

Guided tour: Mon - Fri: 09.00 to 11.30
                                2 pm to 4 pm
Tue + Thu .: Open tour 3:00 pm
Sat. 10:00 to 12:00
For registration please visit:
info@petit-edelbrock.de or by phone +49 (0) 2542.9333-0.

Bells are still cast here today.

The history of Petit & Gebr. Edelbrock's 325-year-old bell foundry tradition finds its origins in the middle of the 17th century. The first verifiable traces appeared with the end of the Thirty Years' War in Lorraine, where many bell-founding families were based.At this time, the problem of transporting heavy bells had not yet been solved, which meant that the bells had to be cast at their final destination. Three of these “wandering” bell-founding families were the Hemonys, Julliens and Petits.Two of the most skilled bell founders in the 17th century were the brothers Francois (Franz) and Peter Hemony from Lorraine. Between 1640 and 1654 Franz Hemony lived in Zutphen and then in Amsterdam, where he initially settled on the Molenpad. Later he worked with his brother at Keizersgracht No. 454 as a bell and gun founder. In addition to many bells and chimes, the brothers cast numerous melodious chimes. As can be seen from an exchange of letters with the learned Jesuit Father Kirchner, Franz Hemony established important rules for the structure of the secondary tones of the bells. As a famous bell founder, he had several apprentices, including Francois de la Paix, Klaas Noorden and Abraham de Graaf. The latter became particularly well-known in Germany and passed on his knowledge to his two apprentices Jullien and Witlocks (Witlookx). This fact is significant because a member of the Jullien family joined the Petit family. (Source: petit-edelbrock-gescher.de/ueber-petit-gebr.-edelbrock/unternehmengeschichte/)