Missing organs

There are a few organs which have disappeared during the last decades. They were either sold, transferred to the depot of the city of Paris or simply removed with unknown destination. Many thanks to Dominique Castel for his help on this subject! Chamber (personal) organs (orgues de salon), theater organs and organs of cinemas are presented on another page. • Abbaye Saint-Victor Demolished in 1790. • British Ambassy Church of Paris 5 Rue D'Aguesseau The original church, a Gothic-style building dating from 1834, had an organ on which many concerts were given. This church was demolished in the second half of the last century to make way for a modern office building, within which a new church was created: Saint Michael’s Anglican Church, with a new organ built by Alfred Kern. It is not known what became of the organ from the former church. • Cathédrale Arménienne Saint-Jean-Baptiste This organ has been sold for one euro to the cathédrale Notre-Dame de Senlis. It was used to enlarged to choir organ during the restoration of the Great Organ Clicquot-Merklin. It left Paris in September 2018. It is replaced by a electronic device. • Chapel of the former Collège des jésuites de l'Immaculée Conception. Hippolyte Loret, 1862. This organ has disappeared. • Chapelle de Franciscains Missionnaires de Marie/Chapelle Sainte-Jeanne-d'Arc The Franciscanessen Missionarissen van Maria community in Paris sold the former convent (32, avenue Reille Paris XIV) in 2017 to a real estate developer and movedin 2020 to the XVII (37 rue Jean Leclaire). The organ was sold to a private person. • The Chapel of a Convent School of the Society of the Sacred Heart Organ of Hippolyte Loret, commissioned over 160 years ago by the Society of the Sacred Heart for a convent school in Paris. When religious institutions were forced to close in France, Mother Mabel Digby quietly had the organ dismantled and shipped from Paris to London, where it was reinstalled in the chapel of Sacred Heart High School in Hammersmith in 1904. In 2026, the school has launched a fundraising campaign to restore this remarkable piece of French heritage. • Chapelle de l'école Ste Geneviève Today: Cathédrale Notre-Dame-du-Liban The old organ in this chapel (builder unknown) disappeared and was replaced in 1934 by a radio-synthetic organ by Abbé Jules Puget. Already by the late 1930s, the instrument was abandoned, and in 1942 some of its pipes were reused in the organ at Sacré-Cœur in Bourbon- Lancy (Saône-et-Loire department). Later, a 2- manual mechanical organ without a case was installed, which also disappeared. • Chapelle de l’Ecole Saint Michel de Picpus The organ of Stolz has been removed, there is no organ anymore. • Chapelle des petites sœurs de l’Assomption In 2002, this organ (Puget, 1908; Gutschenritter, 1957) has been transferred to the paroisse Sainte-Croix-du-Port, Ivry-sur-Seine. • Chapelle des soeurs du Saint-enfant Jésus In 1993, the chapel is reconstructed to be shared between a refectory on the ground floor, meeting rooms on a first floor and a chapel at the top. It is said that the organ has been sold to another church in Paris. To be verified… • Chapelle de l’ancien couvent des Petits- Augustins In 1790, the convent was dissolved and the chapel organ was dismantled. Part of its pipework was reused by Dallery for the rebuilding of the organ at Saint-Roch, which had lost nearly half of its pipes during the Revolution. Starting in 1795, the site housed the Museum of French Monuments, and in 1816 it was assigned to the School of Fine Arts. • Chapelle du Palais des Tuileries This organ was built by Sebastien Erard and John Abbey in 1827, destroyed in July 1830 and rebuilt by Pierre Erard in 1855. More information… • Chapelle du Palais du Luxembourg (nowdays the Senat). Organ built by an unknown builder in 1844, missing. • Chapelle Notre Dame Réconciliatrice de la Salette It seems that this organ (Cavaillé-Coll, vers 1880; Gutschenritter, 1961) was not transfered to the new chapel when the old chapel was demolished during the 1980’s. • Chapelle Sainte Bernadette The organ of Koenig has been removed, there is an electronic device nowadays… • Chapelle Saint Nicolas, 92 rue Vaugirard This organ is sold to a church in the south of France. • Chapel of the former hospital Saint-Vincent- de-Paul This organ was sold. • Chapel of the Clinique Blomet This organ was sold. • Collégiale Saint Martin Demolished at the beginning of the 19th century. • Former Conservatoire Rue Poissonnière Paris IX Organ built in 1927 by Cavaillé-Coll-Convers in an old organ case (XVIIe) of the cathedral of Agen. Composition • Ecole César Franck 8, rue Gît-le-Coeur. This school possesed an organ built by Haerpfer-Ermann in 1969 (II/6). The school has been closed and it is unknown where the organ is nowadays. • Eglise des étrangers See Saint-Ignace • Eglise des étudiants This church was built to maintain a spiritual presence for the students of the Cité Universitaire. However, the construction of the ring road in 1960 cut it off from the university complex, and from 1968 the Catholic students gradually abandoned it. Since 1979, it has been used by the Portuguese Catholic community as the Église du Sacré-Cœur de Gentilly. The organ was built in 1938 by Jacquot Lavergne and inaugurated by Marcel Dupré. • Eglise évangélique Baptiste de Paris This church housed an organ built by Gonzalez 1965, II/8 (6). It is not there anymore. • Eglise luthérienne des Billettes, choir organ In 1987, the church acquired a small choir organ built by Muhleisen. This Positive of 4 stops with pedal ‘en tirasse’ is said to have been sold to a temple in Marseille in the early 2000s. • Eglise luthérienne La Trinité This organ (Ménard, 1847, I/7) was replaced by an electronic device; only the organ case survived. • Notre Dame de la Croix Little organ behind the altar: empty organ case, builder unknown. • Notre-Dame de-la-gare, orgue de choeur This organ (1860, (I/4) was sold in 1991 to a private person. • Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption de Passy, GO The first organ was built at the end of the 19th century by the Abbey company of Versailles. Following the expansion of the church around 1952, the original organ was purchased by the parish of Sainte Bernadette in Brignogan (Finistère), where it remains to this day. When it was installed in 1957 by the Beuchet Debierre company, the organ was modified: the original instrument became the expressive division, while a new windchest with three stops was added to form the Great Organ. • Notre-Dame des Champs, choir organ This organ (Gonzalez, 1969) was removed years ago. • Palais des Congrès, Paris / Palais de la Porte Maillot An organ planned by Boisseau, which was never delivered. The console built by Beuchet- Debierre, along with a few stops from the planned instrument, is now incorporated in the organ of St Martin d’Esquermes in Lille. The woodwork of this console did not require any retouching or modification, except for the new internal electronic components. Photo taken in the Beuchet workshops. Source • Saint-Albert-le-Grand (XIIIe) In 2023, the old pipe organ (see photo) was replaced with a digital Hauptwerk device. • Saint Denis-de-la-Chapelle No organ (see: Sainte Jeanne d'Arc) • Saint Georges de la Villette, orgue de tribune The organ on the tribune was built by Abbey in 1900. Remaining authentic until 1967, it was then the subject of a series of unfinished transformations. Very degraded following the restoration of the church in 1983, the instrumental part was dismantled and only the buffet remained in place. Some of the pipes were then integrated into the choir organ. • Saint Germain des Prés, choir organ In 1988 Jean-Marc Cicchero transferred this organ to Notre Dame de bonne nouvelle to replace an old organ of an unknown builder. • Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin, orgue d'accompagnement Instrument built by Abbey around 1860-1870. Manuel expressif (56 notes) : Montre 8 -Bourdon 8 (B+D) - Flûte harmonique 8 - Prestant 4 (B+D) - Doublette 2 - Trompette 8 - Hautbois 8 (D) - Pédale expressive (20 notes) : Bourdon 8 (empr). In 1992, the organ was unplayable due to an insufficient wind supply and it was dismantled and stocked at the warehouses of the city of Paris. • Sainte-Chapelle du Palais This organ was housed in an organcase designed by Pierre-Nöel Rousset and built by Lavergne in 1756 and 1757. It was an 8-foot, 4- manual and pedal organ with a complete 16' Bourdon built by François-Henri Clicquot. It was inaugurated on March 25th, 1771 by Louis- Claude Daquin et Bénigne Balbâtre. After the Civil constitution of the clergy had repealed the canons and the chaplains serving the St. Chapel in the Palace and the secularization of the building, the organ was dismantled to be transferred to Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois. • Synagogue de la rue Lamartine It was the first consistorial synagogue possessing an organ, of eight registers and two keyboards, built Ducroquet house. Missing. Chapels and Churches without a pipe organ…