PRAGUE (AP) — One of Europe’s most storied churches now has a new voice. Prague’s St. Vitus Cathedral officially unveiled its new organ on Monday, providing the 700-year-old structure — the largest in the Czech Republic — with an instrument worthy of both its religious services and concert performances.
Prague Archbishop Stanislav Přibyl blessed the organ during a ceremonial mass, accompanied by the Czech Philharmonic. The program included Antonín Dvořák’s “The Lužany Mass” along with compositions by Georg Friedrich Händel, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Joseph Haydn.
“St. Vitus Cathedral has gained a new voice,” Archbishop Přibyl said in a prepared statement. “A voice that will not speak with words but will still speak to the heart.”
Eight concerts are planned in the coming days to showcase the new instrument to the public.
The organ, which features four keyboards, was crafted in the workshop of Gerhard Grenzing, located in El Papiol near Barcelona, Spain. The celebrated German organ builder has constructed nearly 140 organs and restored more than 90 historic instruments across numerous countries.
After being completed in Spain, the organ was taken apart and transported piece by piece to Prague by truck. Workers reassembled it inside the cathedral approximately one year ago, after which craftsmen spent several months carefully voicing and tuning each of its pipes.
In total, the instrument contains around 6,000 pipes, with lengths ranging from just 7 millimeters — about a quarter of an inch — to more than 7 meters, or roughly 23 feet.
The cathedral’s previous organ was finished in the early 1930s, but it was never well-suited to the grand space and repeatedly broke down. During World War II and through more than four decades of communist rule, no one pursued repairs or a replacement.
Discussions about building a new organ began approximately 14 years ago. A crowdfunding effort launched in 2017 ultimately raised more than 135 million Czech crowns — equivalent to about $6.5 million — from thousands of individual contributors.
St. Vitus Cathedral holds deep significance in Czech history. It served as the site of royal coronations and burials for Czech kings, and the Czech crown jewels are kept within its walls. The cathedral was also the setting for the funeral mass of Václav Havel, the Czech Republic’s first president, held on December 23, 2011.
