On an Accolades tour to Poland, Hudson High School Choir director and Accolades client Andy Haase had shared with our co-owner Janet Tollund that, while he’d like to be married, his busy schedule as teacher and director left little time to find that special person.
 Andy Haase at the clapper | In Krakow, our local guide had secured access to the famous bell tower at the Wawel Cathedral. With the entire group gathered round the 14-ton bell, the guide explained that it also carried a legend: Should an unmarried person touch the bell, he or she will be married within the year. Everyone (including Andy's mother) encouraged him to touch the bell. A few months after the tour, Andy called us with the news he was getting married -- and to one of the chaperons he had met on the tour! Andy and Jen are happily married with two beautiful little girls. Accolades itineraries are second-to-none, yet off-itinerary moments can be just as memorable. |
More About The Royal Sigismund Bell
The Royal Sigismund Bell is the largest of the five bells hanging in the Sigismund Tower of the Wawel Cathedral in the Polish city of Kraków. It was cast in 1520 by Hans Behem and named after King Sigismund I of Poland, who commissioned it. Weighing almost 28 thousand pounds, it requires 12 bell-ringers to ring it.
| It is rung on special occasions, mostly religious and national holidays, and is regarded as one of Poland's national symbols. The body of the Sigismund Bell is cast in bronze and weighs 9,650 kg. Its diameter at the lip is 242 cm and its height is 241 cm.[1] The wall of the body is from 7 to 21 cm thick.[2] The crown of the bell is attached to a yoke made of oak wood and measuring 308 cm in length and 219 cm in height. Within the bell, suspended on a leather belt of up to 12 layers, attached to an iron supporting structure, is a Gothic clapper, weighing – together with the belt – 365 kg.[1] |  image and history courtesy wikipedia |
