Notre Dame des

Blancs Manteaux

12, rue des Blancs-manteaux, 75004 Paris Orgue de tribune

1841 - Daublaine-Callinet

1863 - Merklin (buffet)

1910 - Abbey

1925 - Convers

1968 - Kern

1992 - Dominique Lalmand

III/43 - mechanical traction - stoplist

Orgue de choeur 1971 - Kern

2020 - Michel Goussu

II/10 - mechanical traction - stoplist

The Great Organ Before the revolution, the church had an organ, but no documents remain on the circumstances in which the church was dispossessed of its organ before the Concordat. After the Concordat, an accompanying organ made by the Larroque factor was installed in the church choir. From 1831, Louis Callinet began the construction of a large organ. In 1864, Joseph Merklin was commissioned to transfer the instrument to the present gallery, made up of 18th century elements. The work was completed in 1867. In 1910, John Abbey removed all sets of mutations. In 1925, the instrument was restored and enlarged by Auguste Convers, who increased it to 32 stops. In 1962, following the bombings of 26 August 1944, during which the instrument was badly damaged, a reconstruction of the instrument was entrusted to Alfred Kern. The latter had just completed the famous reconstruction of the Great Organ of Saint-Séverin in Paris. The instrument, in the North German style, was reinstalled on the enlarged tribune and a new positive was added. It was Alfred Kern himself who ensured the harmonization of the whole. In 1991, works were done by Dominique Lalmand (application of the Bach-Kellner temperament).

The story of Notre-Dame-des-blancs-Manteaux begins in the 13th century with the erection of a convent. The church, in classical style, was built in 1668. During the Revolution, as early as 1790, religious orders were abolished, monks of the White Mantles expelled, buildings looted and sold (1796 and 1797). The church was reopened to worship after the Concordat. In 1863, the architect Victor Baltard added an eighth span to Rue des Blancs-Manteaux. As a façade, he relocated the portal of the Church of the Barnabites, demolished during the drilling of the Boulevard du Palais. Artistically, the Church of the White Mantles houses a surprising number of religious paintings in its nave and its chapel Sainte-Geneviève. It is also home to a magnificent German Baroque-style preaching pulpit, acquired by Father Charles-Félix Garenne, parish priest of the church from 1831 until his death in 1878 and to whom most of the current furniture is owed.

The choir organ The choir organ, built in 1971, replaces a single-keyboard organ of seven Merklin stops that was given to St Maurice's Parish in Strasbourg. The current instrument was built by Alfred Kern and was harmonized for use in liturgy as well as in concerts. Mainenance works were carried out by Michel Goussu in 2020.