Große Orgel

In the province Salamanca, near the Portuguese border is Ciudad Rodrigo with its gothic cathedral and encircled in its city walls.
In the cathedral are two organs by the Echevarria family from the years 1723 and 1725, the smaller organ almost in complete preservation. The main organ was originally placed on the gallery in the side aisle and was relocated in 1782 by Gonzalo de Sausa Mascareña to the Epistle side of the gallery above the choir stalls, so that it is now positioned opposite the small organ. However, the architectural conditions necessitated significant alterations to the concept. When the instrument became unplayable in 1910, it was restored by Juan Bernardi. During this restoration, the wind supply was renewed and several stops were changed to reflect contemporary tastes; the short octave was removed, and a pedal with 12 tones was installed. In 2001, the company Späth, España restored the instrument with the aim of returning it to its original form. Alongside work on the static stability, the playing mechanism was reconstructed. The pipes, wind chests, action board, manual action, and stop action have been almost completely preserved. The disposition of the organ remained unchanged, allowing the cathedral to have two different organ sounds today, with the pitch restored to the original level to enable a combination of the two organs. The small organ had already been restored in 1994 with minimal interventions.