Crématorium du

Père-Lachaise

Salle de la Coupole

16, rue du Repos, 75020 Paris

1936 - Cavaillé-Coll-Pleyel

1960 - Chéron

1979 - Barbéris

1991 - Dargassies

II/21 (17) - electrical traction - stoplist

There is no organ case, only to swell boxes on both sides of the choir (GO on the left, Swell on the right). photos 2-3-4: Jorris Sauquet

The dome room of the Père-Lachaise crematorium was built at the end of the 19th century and is listed on the inventory of Historic Monuments. This completely secular building consists of a room (with a dome) that can serve as a place of worship and 4 wings forming the columbarium where the funeral urns are placed. The building housing the ceremonial hall is neo-Byzantine in style, its nave is square-based, topped by a vast dome forming a dome pierced by 8 curved bays. Beautiful stained glass windows with non-figurative motifs diffuse a soothing light. The room has 3 raised apses, one central and the other two sideways. A mosaic covers the central apse and represents an imaginary landscape under a starry sky. The dome hall has an organ built by the Cavaillé- Coll-Pleyel house in 1936 on the basis of a stoplist established by the organist Marcel Dupré. The organ consists of two chambers placed in the heights of the left and right side apses. Only the shutters (jealousies) of the two expressive boxes are visible (see photo). In 1979, the organ builder Jacques Barberis carried out maintenance works and changed the harmonisation. In 1991, the organ was again changed on the demand of its titulaire by Bernard Dargassies. The organ has a hidden console at the bottom of the right apse. (Translation of a French text by Thierry Correard)