The China Mail - Prague cathedral's long-awaited organ to pipe up in 2026

Located at Prague Castle in the city's UNESCO-listed historic centre, the landmark cathedral, whose construction spanned from 1344-1929, has already housed a dozen organs.

But the last one, installed in 1931, proved inadequate for the acoustics of the majestic cathedral, which drew 2.6 million visitors in 2024.

"It was originally meant to be the largest instrument in the world, but as so often with big plans, it didn't happen," organologist Stepan Svoboda told AFP.

"So we have been waiting for a large organ for almost a century."

The new instrument on the western wall almost seems to float over the choir, its glass decorations reflecting the light that spills into the room through a large rose window.

Made in the German organ builder Gerhard Grenzing's workshop in Spain, it is currently being "voiced" -- a process that involves adjusting its tones to the acoustics of the room -- in time for its inauguration concert scheduled for June 15, 2026.

With over 6,000 pipes ranging from several millimetres to 11 metres (36 feet) in size, the organ was first assembled in Spain, then dismantled and transported to Prague in trucks.

- 'Pipe by pipe' -

Grenzing's design aims to "offer a sound that is pleasant for the Czech listener", said Vojtech Matl, head of the St. Vitus Organ Foundation.

"He made a tour of Czech churches and studied the local organs carefully," according to Matl.

Grenzing made last-minute changes to his project after discovering that the Prague cathedral's porous sandstone walls slowed down the sound.

After 11 years of painstaking preparations, installation in the cathedral began in March.

The voicing currently underway is expected to take 900 hours.

The cathedral now closes at 4:00 pm (1500 GMT) every day -- earlier than usual, as voicers require absolute silence and work from closing until midnight.

Hoping to finish the job by the year's end, chief voicer Andre Lacroix said he adjusted the sound of each pipe for the new environment.

"We have to work on all the sound parameters, pipe by pipe," Lacroix told AFP, squeezed inside the organ, surrounded by pipes and tapping on the metal pieces with a little hammer.

"You adjust the height of the bevel, the hole, (and) adjust the opening of the foot at the wind inlet. And then you adjust the length of the pipe, which gives you the pitch," he said, describing the meticulous process.

- Organ 'donors' -

Donors, including tens of thousands of ordinary Czechs, have so far contributed 114 million koruna ($5.4 million).

"The organ will cost 105 million koruna, the design will cost 25 million, and we also need money for all the tests," said Matl.

He listed a variety of donors: a man sending five thousand dollars, an elderly woman selling a historic coin, and another with a plastic bag full of Australian dollars.

Many have contributed by "adopting" a pipe -- literally buying it to have their name assigned to it forever.

The crowd6funding drive resembles a collection to build Prague's National Theatre in the late 19th century under the motto of "The Nation for Itself".

"Grannies and grandpas adopted pipes to bear the names of their grandchildren. Some got it for baptism, some for Christmas," said Matl.

Y.Parker--ThChM