File:Bell at Chersonesos (2005-08-082) (188043055).jpg

The bell is a favorite subject of photographers. Pictures of it decorate numerous books and pamphlets about Chersonesos, although it is completely unrelated to the ancient city.

In spite of this, its location on the picturesque promontory above the sea and its mossy surface, which in some people's perception is probably associated with the romance of antiquity, make the bell a famous sight at Chersonesos; so it is very uncommon when a visitor does not ask a tour guide for the story of the bell.

The inscription on the bell is difficult to decipher: "This bell was cast? St. Nicholas the Miracle in Taganrog of the Turkish artillery weighing (351?) poods [1 pood = 16.38 kg] in the year of 1776, month of August, day ..."

In 1783 Emperor Alexander I ordered the bell to be transported to Sevastopol to be fitted in the Church of St. Nicholas which was being constructed there. After the Oriental war of 1853-1856, the allied armies of Great Britain and France took 13 church bells out of Sevastopol together with other war booty. Many years later, a bell with a Russian inscription was found in Notre-Dame de Paris, and nobody knew how it had appeared there. Thanks to certain diplomatic efforts undertaken by both sides, and especially by the French consul in Sevastopol, L.I. Ge, the bell was returned to the belfry of the monastery at Chersonesos from where it was presumably taken. The "captive" was solemnly returned on November 23, 1913, an event marked with a large attendance and a religious procession. In a letter to L. I. Ge President Poincare of France wrote that he returned the bell to Russia "as a sign of alliance and friendship." In their turn, the Russian government awarded the French consul the order of St. Vladimir of the 4th degree.

The monastery was closed in 1925 by the new authorities, and two years later all its bells were sent away to be recast. Only one bell escaped this sad fate because the Department of the Security of Navigation of the Black and Azov Seas proposed to place it on the coast as a signal bell. Its distinct and deep peal was meant to sound the signal to passing ships in foggy weather.