Wed Apr 01, 2020 12:36 pm
A 15th century Gothic style organ has been found totally intact and in original condition and amazingly good state of preservation.
The church tower and the church were separated before 1600 and when the two were joined, the old organ was shoved to the new backwall, but in 1784 a new organ was installed and brought more forward. They decided to preserve the old organ and not take it down by sandwiching it between the 1600 wall and the 1784 wall, totally hermetically sealing the Gothic organ.
Since this gothic organ's flat cases do not have much depth, and since there were no church archives to speak of, it was always thought that the new wall behind the organ was quite thick, and there could be nothing of importance between these two walls. Nobody cared to think or explore otherwise.
A recent slight earthquake revealed a slight crack in that wall, and the current organist looked through it with a flashllght, and to his absolute amazement saw something that caught his attention: "There is something behind this wall !".
The rest is history. A large opening was made in the wall and the organ carefully dismantled and totally restored. The organ will be placed on the partition separating the choir from the nave. The current late 19th choir organ of modest size on that spot will be placed on the church floor in a large side chapel.
As part of the documentation process, the organ will also be sampled and permission has been granted to make it also available as a Hauptwerk sample set.
This is all I know for the moment; more will be revealed later. The church is currently closed for earthquake repairs.
The church tower and the church were separated before 1600 and when the two were joined, the old organ was shoved to the new backwall, but in 1784 a new organ was installed and brought more forward. They decided to preserve the old organ and not take it down by sandwiching it between the 1600 wall and the 1784 wall, totally hermetically sealing the Gothic organ.
Since this gothic organ's flat cases do not have much depth, and since there were no church archives to speak of, it was always thought that the new wall behind the organ was quite thick, and there could be nothing of importance between these two walls. Nobody cared to think or explore otherwise.
A recent slight earthquake revealed a slight crack in that wall, and the current organist looked through it with a flashllght, and to his absolute amazement saw something that caught his attention: "There is something behind this wall !".
The rest is history. A large opening was made in the wall and the organ carefully dismantled and totally restored. The organ will be placed on the partition separating the choir from the nave. The current late 19th choir organ of modest size on that spot will be placed on the church floor in a large side chapel.
As part of the documentation process, the organ will also be sampled and permission has been granted to make it also available as a Hauptwerk sample set.
This is all I know for the moment; more will be revealed later. The church is currently closed for earthquake repairs.
