Eperješi and his Big Ben. (source: TASR)
THE MASTER of the Guild of Artistic Blacksmiths, Vladimír Eperješi, had promised somewhat tongue-in-cheek that he would construct replicas of the 100 most beautiful buildings in the world for his hometown of Nový Ruskov in eastern Slovakia. He has now added a replica of London’s Big Ben to his past works such as the Eiffel Tower, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Statue of Liberty and a Dutch windmill.
“I made Big Ben to a scale of 1:22.8 even though originally it should have been at a scale of 1:50 like all the other replicas; but then the tower would have been too small,” the master blacksmith told the TASR newswire. The bell tower of the Nový Ruskov Big Ben has a real brass bell that Eperješi bought 12 years ago at an exhibition without knowing what he would use it for.
“The work on Big Ben lasted about six months but I didn’t work on it every day, rather just at weekends. I used about 800 kilograms of metal,” Eperješi said, adding that he makes all of his miniature buildings from scrap metal in his free time. “You can make an artwork from any piece of scrap metal,” he stated.
With the exception of Big Ben, all his works are in a 1:50 scale and he said it has been very difficult to acquire design plans for his replicas. He admitted that it has been extremely hard to decide on the most typical building to represent Slovakia, noting that he will “gladly accept any suggestions”.
He told TASR that some of his works are now placed in Bratislava and his dream is to establish a museum of blacksmithing. He said he would need a whole lifetime if he truly wanted to fulfil his promise to make 100 replicas of world’s most beautiful buildings.
