In 1874, Aristide Cavaillé-Coll built a two-manual organ with 25 stops for the east gallery of the basilica in a niche behind the high altar, behind a typical, massive oak facade in the Neo-Renaissance style that perfectly matches the architecture of the church. Originally, there were plans to extend the nave of the church by some more travees and to install another, even larger instrument on a west gallery. However, these plans had to be abandoned due to a lack of financial resources. The Cavaillé-Coll organ was inaugurated in 1874 by organist Charles-René Colin.
In 1897, a small choir organ (I/8) manufactured by Louis Debierre was installed. The same organ builder overhauled the Cavaillé- Coll organ in 1902, adding a large main bellow and rebuilding the Barker machine – not without affixing a placard to the console stating that he had ‘improved’ Cavaillé-Coll’s instru- ment.
In 1947, organ builder Joseph Beuchet, a grandson of Louis Debierre, added another manual (II. Positif) and expanded the organ to a total of 42 stops. These additional stops changed the character of the organ, as they were intended to brighten the sound of the instrument in a neoclassical sense. In 1997, the entire organ was listed as a historical monument.
The aim of the restoration of the organ carried out between 2007 and 2010 by the Manufacture Bretonne d’Orgues under Nicolas Toussaint was to restore Cavaillé- Coll’s instrument while incorporating the additions made by Beuchet. Eight of the 16 stops added by Beuchet were retained, and the other eight were replaced with new pipework based on Cavaillé-Coll’s measurements. The entire mechanism, the windchests and the two Barker machines were carefully restored.
Christoph Martin Frommen