Museums, studios & shops
Musée Suisse de l’Orgue
- Type
- Museum
- Address
- Rue du Saint-Bernard 5, 1852 Roche
On the Chablais road, in Roche, between Montreux and Saint-Maurice, the Swiss Organ Museum occupies a former relay barn, a stop on one of the oldest Roman roads, now a listed historic monument. It offers a journey through twenty-three centuries of music, history and technique: from the hydraulic organ of Antiquity to the domestic organs of the Emmental, from barrel organs to harmoniums, up to the great organ of Radio Lausanne. Born of one man’s passion, that of Jean-Jacques Gramm, the museum is visited in the company of its curator, who makes the instruments sound.
Twenty-three centuries of organs, in Roche
A barn on the Roman road
The museum occupies a former relay barn, once a stop on one of the oldest Roman roads linking the Rhône plain to the Alpine passes. Restored and listed as a historic monument, the stone building, crowned with its tall roof, gives an unexpected setting to the most varied instruments.
From the hydraulic organ to barrel organs
The collection retraces twenty-three centuries of music, history and technique. It shows a reconstruction of the hydraulic organ of Antiquity, the Greco-Roman ancestor of the instrument, alongside domestic organs from the Emmental, barrel organs, a curious cardboard instrument, many harmoniums and the great organ of Radio Lausanne.
Among the most imposing pieces, an organ case six metres high, built in 1778 by the organ builder S. Scherrer, towers over the barn.
Jean-Jacques Gramm and the Friends of the organ
The museum was born of one man’s passion, that of the Lausanne native Jean-Jacques Gramm, who began his research on the organ in 1947 and housed his first instruments in Essertes from 1969. The Association of Friends of the Swiss Organ Museum formed around him in 1974, the Foundation in 1979, and the collection took its place in the Roche relay barn in 1983.
With more than seven hundred and fifty members, the association keeps the place alive. The visits, guided by the curator, come with demonstrations and recitals: here, the organs are not merely exhibited, they play.