A new organ is being installed at Prague’s St. Vitus Cathedral, providing a suitable instrument for the 700-year-old temple. The installation is expected to be completed by late August, followed by voicing and tuning, with the first public performance slated for June 15 of next year, the feast of St. Vitus.
The organ comprises approximately 6,000 pipes, ranging from a mere 7 millimeters to an impressive 7 meters in length. This intricate instrument was crafted in the workshop of Gerhard Grenzing near Barcelona, Spain. Grenzing, a renowned German organ builder, has a distinguished record of constructing and restoring numerous organs worldwide.
Following its construction in Spain, the organ was carefully disassembled and transported to Prague. St. Vitus Cathedral holds significant importance to the Czech Republic, serving as the coronation and burial site for Czech kings and the repository of the Czech crown jewels. The cathedral also hosted the funeral Mass for Vaclav Havel, the Czech Republic’s first president, in 2011.
The previous organ, installed in the early 1930s, proved inadequate for the cathedral’s vast space and was prone to breakdowns. Efforts to repair it were stalled by World War II and the subsequent communist era. The initiative to build a new organ commenced in 2017, supported by a successful crowdfunding campaign that raised approximately 98% of the required funds, totaling over 109 million Czech koruna ($5.2 million).
