Église Sainte-Croix de Bordeaux
Romanesque abbey church whose eighteenth-century organ was dismantled, split between two buildings, and rebuilt from half-lost pipework.
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About this audio guide
This guide to Eglise Sainte-Croix de Bordeaux traces the strange fate of its eighteenth-century organ, built by the monk Dom Bedos de Celles and his assistant Jean Beyssac in 1748. In 1817 the archbishop ordered its pipework dismantled and swapped with the cathedral across town, leaving only the carved case behind for over a century. It follows the restorers, led by Pascal Quoirin, who reopened that case in 1984 and spent over a decade rebuilding what time had lost. Listen for how much of what plays today is original, and how much is new.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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