PRAGUE — A new pipe organ was formally inaugurated at Prague’s historic St. Vitus Cathedral on Monday, providing the 700-year-old landmark with a long-awaited instrument intended for both religious services and concert performances, church officials said.
The inauguration took place during a ceremonial Mass led by Prague Archbishop Stanislav Přibyl at the cathedral, the largest church in the Czech Republic and one of the country’s most significant cultural and religious sites. The event included performances by the Czech Philharmonic and featured works by Czech composer Antonín Dvořák as well as music by Georg Friedrich Händel, Camille Saint-Saëns and Joseph Haydn, according to cathedral officials.
“St. Vitus Cathedral has gained a new voice,” Přibyl said in a statement released ahead of the ceremony. “A voice that will not speak with words but will still speak to the heart.”
The instrument was built by German organ builder Gerhard Grenzing at his workshop in El Papiol, near Barcelona, Spain. According to project organizers, the organ contains about 6,000 pipes and four keyboards. After being assembled in Spain, it was dismantled, transported to Prague in sections and reassembled inside the cathedral, followed by an extended period of tuning and acoustic adjustments.
The project was launched more than a decade ago to replace a smaller organ installed in the early 1930s that officials said was inadequate for the cathedral’s vast interior and had experienced repeated technical problems. Efforts to build a replacement gained momentum through a public fundraising campaign that attracted support from thousands of donors, according to the foundation overseeing the project.
St. Vitus Cathedral occupies a central place in Czech history. Located within Prague Castle, it houses the Czech crown jewels and has served as the site of royal coronations, burials and major state ceremonies. The cathedral also hosted the funeral Mass of former Czech President Václav Havel in 2011.
Organizers said the new instrument is intended to support both liturgical functions and cultural events. A series of concerts is scheduled in the coming days to introduce the organ to the public and demonstrate its capabilities.
As of Monday, the inauguration marked the completion of a project that church officials and supporters said had been years in development. The new organ is now expected to become a permanent part of the cathedral’s religious and musical activities.
