PACCARD FOUNDRY

The saga of the Paccard Foundry began in Quintal in 1796, after the French Revolution. The village church no longer had a bell, and the parish requested a priest from the bishopric. The parish was therefore obliged to cast a new bell. Calling on a master bell caster from Carouge, Jean-Baptiste Pitton, he needed an apprentice. Antoine Paccard, the syndic of Quintal, offered to take on the job. He subsequently founded the Quintal Foundry, where he cast his second bell in 1817. The foundry expanded, and in 1854 his sons moved it to Annecy-le-Vieux. At the end of the 19th^century , Georges Paccard's foundry acquired a worldwide reputation, thanks to the "Savoyarde" of the Sacré-Coeur de Montmartre in Paris, cast in 1891. His descendants took over, further developing the foundry's know-how and unique style. The Jeanne-d'Arc (1914, Rouen Cathedral), the 50 Liberty Bell replicas (1950, USA), the 33-ton Peace Bell (2000, USA), the world's largest three-bell bell (1986, Ontario, Canada), all cast in Annecy-le-Vieux. And let's not forget the famous carillons, including Europe's largest, cast in Sévrier, where the foundry opened in 1990. Today, the Paccard Foundry is one of the jewels in the crown of the French monumental bell industry, and the pride of the Hauts-Savoyards. With its Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant (Living Heritage Company) label, the company has passed on its unique manufacturing processes for seven generations, evolving between respect for tradition and technological innovation. In 2015, the company began casting 64 bells, including 3 drones, for the new carillon of Rouen's Notre-Dame cathedral.