It is one of the most recent churches in Paris.
Very close to Place Félix-Éboué, at the top of Avenue Daumesnil, the Church of the Saint-Esprit and its 33 m height stand out in the air of the 12th arrondissement.
Classified as a Historic Monument since 2016, the building - bricks on the outside, all concrete on the inside - was never completed.
Its construction began in 1928 to cope with the development of the district between the two wars.
Although it was officially completed in 1935 (and even 1963 for the bell tower), the finishing touches are still missing today.
“My funds being extremely limited, I was not able to provide a copper roof,” wrote the architect Paul Tournon in a letter to his brother, found in the archives by teams from the City of Paris.
Main shortcoming: the organ, for which a place was provided, but which still remains vacant today.
This place won't stay empty for much longer.
Organist of the Parisian church since 2005, Hampus Lindwall, who today plays on a much smaller choir organ installed in a corner of the church, was able to find an instrument more suited to the dimensions of the building... And which will be collected for free.
Its transfer must be completed by the end of 2026 from Rouen.
3,500 pipes, some 12 m long
The prefecture of Seine-Maritime is crumbling under churches, to the point of having deconsecrated one of them, called Saint-Nicaise, to allow the first brewery church in France to be established there.
She therefore agreed to give up the organ in this building to find a new home for it.
“Its characteristics correspond perfectly to the projects imagined in the 1930s but which were never able to be carried out due to lack of financing,” enthuses Karen Taïeb, deputy (App. PS) to the mayor of Paris in charge of heritage.
Also read: Notre-Dame-de-Paris: how the cathedral organ is being reborn
“It was an organist friend who told me about this Rouen church.
I quickly contacted the town halls of Rouen and Paris to propose this idea to them.
The organ of the Saint-Nicaise church - 3 keyboards, 40 stops and 3,500 pipes - is considered the masterpiece of Louis Eugène-Rochesson.
Numerous praises for this neoclassical instrument, both from organ specialists and instrumentalists, do not fail to attest to this!
», rejoices Hampus Lindwall, who today invites many international organists to play on the “small” choir organ.
Estimated at 2 million euros, the work of moving, renovating and installing the organ - whose pipes measure 12 m high - must begin at the end of 2024. “We organize concerts every quarter, which display all complete, to participate in the financing,” continues the organist of the Church of the Holy Spirit, which welcomes 1,500 people during the five weekend masses.
Hampus Lindwall will thus make Jeanne Demessieux’s dream come true.
A prodigy organist in this church between 1933 and 1962, she gave concerts all over the world before ending her career at La Madeleine.
Seeing a renowned organ installed at the Church of the Holy Spirit was wishful thinking for her.