Johann Eugen and Adam Orazio Casparini 1697-1703
State of preservation: After several severe repairs and modernisations during the 19th and 20th centuries the original instrument is lost; in 1997-2006 a historistic reconstruction with 4 manuals in close approach to Casparini was built.
The „Sun organ“ by Father and Son Casparini was one of the most famous organs of its time exemplifying some important tendencies and events for future organ developments. It represented a link of styles and ideas from the extreme south to the extreme north of the Habsburg empire. This also resembled the lifes of its builders, especially the life of Johann Eugen (aka Giovanni Eugenio) Casparini born near Görlitz but active in today's northern Italy. Well experienced with the different organ traditions within the Habsburg empire he created a sort of "Habsburg organ" hardly possible elsewhere, which deeply influenced organ making in Austria as well as Silesia (after the Prussian conquest) and Saxony.