Versailles

Cathédrale Saint-Louis

4 place Saint Louis, 78000 Versailles

Orgue de choeur OdT>

C3 The old choir organ in the cathedral was built in 1837 by organ builder John Abbey, based in Versailles (rue de la Chancellerie, near the cathedral and the palace). Back then, it had nine stops: six on the Great Organ—Flute, Bourdon, Prestant, Doublet, Full Mixture, Trumpet—and three on the Swell—Open Flute, Prestant, Oboe. In 1863, Cavaillé-Coll restored it and tweaked the layout a bit. It was moved to Tunis Cathedral in 1883, replaced by a big Mutin organ in 1923, and probably disappeared after that. Read more... In 1880, the Cathedral Fabric Council and Aristide Cavaillé- Coll signed a contract for building, transporting, and installing "in the choir of the St-Louis Cathedral Church in Versailles a Great Accompaniment Organ, made to the rules of art and the specifications signed by the builder on March 14, 1879." He also agreed "to build and install an organ case... in oak wood, decorated with polished and burnished display pipes." "Mr. A. Cavaillé-Coll undertakes to take over the current choir organ." This document confirms the full replacement of John Abbey's organ. In 1911, Charles Mutin added a 27-note pedalboard drawing the 16' Bourdon Bass from the Great Organ via pneumatic borrowing. In 1940 and 1947: two interventions by builder Bossier in a neo-classical style, adding mutations to the Great Organ (nasard and tierce) and moving the Full Mixture to the Swell on a posted windchest. In 1978, Adrien Maciet completely readjusted the original mechanics, replaced the too-narrow bench, and installed a new 30-note pedalboard. In 2001, a restoration by Gildas Ménoret from Nantes: back to the Cavaillé-Coll organ (removing the Great Organ mutations, restoring the romantic Full Mixture to the Great Organ). Stoplist: Reed on/off + cancel (from Swell): the clever mechanism still lets you pre-select the stops by rotating the drawstops. The Subbass stop still has no drawstop; on/off is via a toe piston. Source