Europe's second-largest bell, nicknamed "Pummerin", is one of several famous bells across the continent being checked to determine their lifespans, and unlock the secret of the optimum chime.

-- The new Pummerin bell was cast from metal of the old Pummerin in 1951. It has a diameter of 3.14 m, a height of 2.94 m and weighs 21.3 tonnes.

Even if the Pummerin is a youngster in bell terms, Peter Grassmayr, a 14th-generation bell-founder and the Austrian partner in the project, has no doubt about its destiny.

The famed Pummerin bell in Vienna's downtown St. Stephen's Cathedral rang solemnly in honor of the Vienna archbishop, who was widely revered in overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Austria even after his ...