Novější historie varhan konkatedrály Nanebevzetí Panny Marie v Opavě

The situation after the fire of 1758, which destroyed the church including the organ, was bleak: the repairs took decades. The temporary solution was a small positive organ on a provisional choir in the presbytery. The commission for a new organ was given to František Horčička from Frýdek in 1781, who built a large two-manual instrument with 34 registers for 2800 florins. A copy of the contract informs us well about this instrument, about František Horčička’s method of work and about other circumstances of his commission. E. Kreuzinger’s statement that Karl Kuttler built the organ here in 1836 is probably wrong. The new instrument was not built until 1894 as opus 418 by Gebrüder Rieger. This Krnov workshop rebuilt the organ in 1924 (pneumatisation of the action), 1957 (extension of the register specification and tonal range) and 1991 (further enlargement and installation of the electric action).