From Italy to Värmland: Karlskoga's Unique Italian Baroque Organ
An abandoned, empty organ case was for sale at an antique shop in central Rome. The organ case was in very bad condition: shortened both in height and depth, and damaged by woodworms. Almost all of the metal and wooden pipes were missing except for a few that belonged to the old façade. An antique enthusiast from Bologna bought the organ case as a decorative piece of furniture but also wished to restore the instrument to its original glory. On the new owner’s initiative, the restoration project began in 2006 with a comprehensive documentation and new construction of a replica of the organ as it would have been in 1715: the instrument needed a new wind-chest, bellow, motor, many new parts of the keyboard as well as the mechanics, structure, decoration, organ case and practically all of the pipes but a very few from the façade. The renowned Italian organ building company Inzoli-Bonizzi from Crema reconstructed the whole instrument from scratch and planned to revive the old façade into th
