Vincennes

Saint-Louis

23 Rue Céline Robert, 94300 Vincennes

While the French were electing their new President of the Republic (the 8th) on Sunday, May 7, 2017, the crowd had taken place in the church of St Louis for the inauguration of its new organ. This building, whose architecture is influenced by Byzantines or certain Eastern churches (e.g. St. Sophia's Church in Constantinople) and whose construction began in 1913 and was completed in 1934, is the work of the architects Jacques Droz and Joseph Marrast. Its architecture, based on a vault composed of two pairs of concrete arches intersecting at right angles according to a Greek cross plan and topped by a lantern, is enhanced by a rich interior decoration: wall frescoes, friezes and scrolls, mosaics, stained glass windows with multicoloured flashes, liturgical furniture... An exceptional ensemble, a remarkable witness to the religious art of the twentieth century, which was classified in 1996 as a historical monument.

E1 The organ builder Denis Lacorre and his team constructed an instrument in a neo-classical style, with three manuals and pedal, four sound divisions, and 39 stops inspired by and voiced after the Victor Gonzales organ of Saint-Jacques Church in Dieppe. The console was built using three keyboards dating from 1932, taken from the grand organ of Sainte-Clotilde Church in Paris, which were used by Charles Tournemire. These were donated by the great-grandson of the organ builder Joseph Beuchet, who had been commissioned to convert the instrument to electric action.