Saint-Eustache, Parijs

eustacheIn 1989 Van den Heuvel orgelbouw constructed the largest organ of France in the famous Saint-Eustache church. The organ consists of 101 stops (147 rangs) spread out over five manuals and pedal. The are two consoles, one at the gallery with assisted mechanical key action and one down in the nave with electric action. The organ was, the last 21 years, and still is used very intensively on a daily basis for study, concerts, recordings and naturally numerous services.

The last 10 years the city of Paris, owner of church and organ, has carried out a lot of restoration work on both the interior and exterior of the monumental building. The works will continue for several more years.

The city of Paris considers the Van den Heuvel-organ of the Saint-Eustache still as the most prestigious organ of France.
During recent years several lightning strikes hit the church and organ causing damages to phone and computer electronics of both church and organ. After 21 years it got significantly difficult to find replacement parts for the organ electronics. The city of Paris decided to modernize and expand the possibilities of the organ by replacing the electronics with a state-of-the-art bus-technology system.

The memory system of the combination action was updated to 20,000 combinations which can be written to a USB memory stick.

speeltafel-parijs

At the movable nave console additional couplers were installed (Grand-Choeur/Positif, Solo/Positif en Grand-Choeur/Récit). Also several special melody couplers were added: Soprano Grand-Choeur/Pédale, Soprano Récit/Pédale en Basse Grand-Choeur/Pédale.
A programmable pedal divide enhances the solistic possibilities of the pedal. A MIDI recording and playback system was added.
The nave console received all its updates in the workshop in Dordrecht. After 21 years the organ received in august and September 2010 the usual cleaning and large maintenance service.

speeltafel-parijs2