Prague, April 24 (CTK) – A new organ for the St Vitus Cathedral at Prague Castle will be built by the Spanish firm of Gerhard Grenzing from Barcelona under a contract that Cardinal Dominik Duka and the firm’s representatives signed in the church yesterday.
The instrument will cost 80 million crowns and it is to be played in October 2019 for the first time.
It will be inspired by French influences and it will be possible to play on it both classical and contemporary organ music.
Gerhard Grenzing’s firm has built 138 organs, including for the cathedrals in Brussels and Madrid, and reconstructed more than 90 historical instruments.
The builder was chosen in an international competition. It will have 97 stops. The smallest pipe will be seven millimetres long, the longest more than seven metres.
Eight lorries will take the instrument to weigh more than 20 tonnes to Prague.
The St Vitus Organ Endowment counts with the money being collected in a national fund raising campaign. One third of the cost has already been gathered.
The new organ will replace the provisional instrument and symbolically complete the building of the cathedral which took several centuries at the beginning of the 21st century.
The cathedral was founded in 1344 during the reign of King of Bohemia and Roman Emperor Charles IV and completed in 1929.
“It is up to us to implement the legacy of our ancestors, mainly the Father of the Country (Charles IV) at a time of peace and freedom,” said Duka, who initiated the project.
“Choosing the way of a national collection is symbolic in view of the deep tradition collective effort has in Czech history. Public fund-raising built not only the National Theatre, but it was also the major source of funding the construction of St Vitus Cathedral in the 19th century. Thanks to it, the cathedral belonged to all and its symbol far exceeded and still exceeds any church framework. The cathedral is now a symbol of spiritual heritage, culture and history,” Duka said.
($1=25.179 crowns)
