The bell, which was prepared in Moscow and is intended for the belfry being built at Saint Giragos Armenian Church in Diyarbakir, Turkey, has arrived in the city.  

The bell, which is made of bronze and weighs 100 kilograms, will ring once again in the Armenian church after 97 years, CNN Turk news agency of Turkey informs.  

The Church’s restoration, which commenced nearly 2.5 years ago, is coming to an end, and the next Holy Liturgy will be celebrated at the completely-renovated monastic complex on November 4. 

Saint Giragos Armenian Church of Diyarbakir was built in 1376, in the city’s district where large number of Christians lived until the Armenian Genocide.

The belfry of the Church, which is the largest Christian cathedral in the Middle East, was destroyed by a lightning in 1913. Subsequently, the local Armenians built a new belfry, whose bell was prepared by a mixture of gold and copper. In 1915, however, the Turks destroyed the belfry with cannons solely because it was higher than the minarets of the surrounding mosques.      

Saint Giragos Church was left to its fate after 1980, but Diyarbakir Armenians who now live in Istanbul established the Saint Giragos Fund to restore the church. The Fund paid 70 percent of the restoration costs, worth $2.5 million dollars, and the Diyarbakir City Hall paid the remaining 30 percent.