St. Maximim Basilique

The basilica itself is said to be the highest in Provence with its 33 meters and it hides many treasures and pieces of art which witness its past glory. On the western gallery above the main entrance, the magnificent and large "double sixteen feet" organ was built by friar Jean-Esprit Isnard and his nephew Joseph in 1772-1775. It is one of very few French historical organs which miraculously survived the French revolution. The legend says that when the revolutionars came to the basilica to destroy its furniture including the organ, the organist of that time, Mr. Forcade, played the revolutionary song "Marseillaise" in front of the revolutionary authorities.

It saved the organ from the demolition. However, the dominitians were expelled, the place lost its importance for some time due to the "secularisation" of the French republic. So, being an organ in a small countryside village during the 19th century, it was fortunately saved from all the "modernising" tendencies of that time.

As the result, this organ remains one of the exceptional French large instruments whose complete original material made by Isnard is preserved in its entirety: 2960 pipes, except that the original wooden pipes (the bass octaves of the bourdons) are used only for display now, since they were substituted with metal bourdon pipes during the last reconstruction.