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Notre-Dame de Paris: five months of work to dismantle the organ

2020-08-03T15:01:35.428Z


The monument work on the historic Notre-Dame organ, miraculously spared, began this Monday morning. The five-cl console


The first operation to dismantle the historic organ of Notre-Dame, it went well this Monday morning. “The console with five keyboards, the cockpit of this marvelous instrument, the largest organ in France, has been removed. He is now on the ground, safe, ”specifies one of the technicians in charge of this exceptional operation.

Fifteen months after the fire of Notre-Dame, on April 15, 2019, Bertrand Cattiaux, the barley maker, responsible for 40 years with the maintenance of the instrument located under the rose window of the cathedral, cannot believe it . “The organ is very dusty with the lead which has gone up in smoke from the arrow. But he was miraculously preserved and he escaped the flames. When we see what happened on the organ of Nantes cathedral, which burned down in the fire of July 18, we realize how lucky we are ”, he reacts today. hui.

It is the first day of the dismantling of the organ of Notre Dame. Public establishment of conservation and restoration of Notre-Dame.  

It is a group of companies which is responsible for the vast dismantling project. Quoirin (site representative) and Atelier Cattiaux and Chevron were requisitioned for their perfect knowledge of the instrument. The Languedoc manufacture of large organs was added to the operation. “We have five months for this dismantling. Three teams were therefore needed, ”emphasizes Bertrand Cattiaux. He knows who he is talking about: he has already dismantled the instrument for a complete restoration in 1990. In 2012 and 2014, he also took out all the pipes for a major upgrade of the instrument.

8,000 pipes to be dismantled

“The worksite is fairly standard for such an instrument. But this time, it is the working conditions, with respiratory assistance, which makes it complicated, ”he adds.

“I am delighted with the successful removal of the console, which marks the start of the operation to restore the great organ,” said General Jean-Louis Georgelin, patron of the conservation and restoration of the organ. Notre-Dame cathedral. It will then be necessary to dismantle each of the 8000 pipes of the 115 sets of the instrument in order to restore it. It is therefore a meticulous operation that we have prepared and planned for a long time, so that the great organ can resonate on April 16, 2024 ”. It is indeed on this date, according to his promise made to the French and to President Emmanuel Macron, that a Te Deum mass will have to be said… Even if the restoration project of the cathedral will not be completely completed. The organ, on the other hand, must be fully ready.

A delicate operation.Public establishment of Notre-Dame  

Installed in the 13th century in the cathedral, the great organ dates mainly from 1733. It has been modified on several occasions, with a historic building site in 1868 by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, a great organ builder of the 19th century. It was then electrified, then modernized, in 2012, with a computer system, the general condition of which must now be checked.

The console now safe, until August 17, the organization of the entire system for bringing the site up to standard must be installed by the Languedoc manufacture. Then, the three companies will have to ensure the delicate dismantling of the parts dusted with lead.

5 months of work to remove it

Spared by the flames and the water from the firefighters, the disassembly of the instrument should last five months. All the elements will be placed in a warehouse still kept secret, in Ile-de-France, in four waterproof containers. At the same time, outside, under the Parisian sky, the dismantling of the scaffolding which surrounded the spire at the time of the fire, continues with care. This tangle of steel tubes, largely welded together by the fire, takes place until September in a second particularly delicate site.

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"For the cleaning, restoration and reassembly of the great organ, a call for tenders will be published", specifies the public establishment. The cleaning and reinstallation work will last until 2024. At the same time, another instrument, less monumental than the one which still overlooks the main nave, must also be restored. It is the choir organ, which is more often used to accompany the songs of the mass, interpreted by the Maîtrise de Notre Dame. By the end of the year, this instrument, which suffered much more from the disaster, will also be deposited for decontamination. Then, once his two instruments are back on site, the music will be able to revive the spirit of this place dedicated to prayer.

Source: leparis

All news articles on 2020-08-03

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