Church blesses giant Tsar Bell

The huge bell was cast in St Petersburg

A giant bell that will be the biggest to chime in Russia has been blessed and placed in a monastery bell tower.

The 72 metric ton Tsar Bell is modelled on a 1748 bell destroyed during Joseph Stalin's Soviet crackdown on religion in the 1930s.

Patriarch Alexy II, of the Russian Orthodox Church, blessed the bell at the Trinity St Sergius monastery, north-east of Moscow, on Friday.

A huge crane was used to raise the bell to the belfry after the ceremony.

The 4.55 metre (15-foot) tall bell, decorated with reliefs of religious figures and an inscription saying it was created during President Vladimir Putin's rule, is due to be rung for the first time on 30 May.

Forty bells at the monastery were destroyed by Stalin's forces and the Tsar Bell is the third to be replaced.

It was cast in a shipyard in St Petersburg before being transferred on a special truck on a three day journey to Sergiyev Posad.

Two giant bells with Mr Putin's name cast on the side were blessed and hung in the monastery's tower in 2002.

Another Tsar Bell, cast in 1735 and weighing more than 200 tons, is on show at the Kremlin. It cracked during a fire and never rang.