St. Stephen's Cathedral (german: Dom St. Stephan) is a

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

church from 1688 in

Passau Passau (; bar, label=Central Bavarian, Båssa) is a city in Lower Bavaria, Germany, also known as the Dreiflüssestadt ("City of Three Rivers") as the river Danube is joined by the Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north. Passau's popu ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, dedicated to

Saint Stephen Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ''Stéphanos'', meaning "wreath, crown" and by extension "reward, honor, renown, fame", often given as a title rather than as a name; c. 5 – c. 34 AD) is traditionally venerated as the protomartyr or first ...

. It is the seat of the Catholic

Bishop of Passau The Diocese of Passau is a Roman Catholic diocese in Germany that is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising.diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...

. Since 730, there have been many churches built on the site of the current cathedral. The current church, a baroque building around long, was built from 1668 to 1693 after a fire in 1662 destroyed its predecessor, of which only the late

gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

eastern side remains. The cathedral's overall plan was made by

Carlo Lurago Carlo Lurago (also spelled Luraghi) (1615 – 22 October 1684) was an Italian architect, who was most active in Prague. He was born in Pellio Superiore in the Val d'Intelvi, near Como. At the age of 23, as an already an accomplished plasterer, ...

, its interior decoration by

Giovanni Battista Carlone Giovanni Battista Carlone (1603–1684) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Genoa. Biography Carlone was born and died in Genoa. He came from a family of artists: his father Taddeo, uncle, and cousins were sculptors ...

, and its frescos by

Carpoforo Tencalla Carpoforo Tencalla (or Tencala) (10 September 1623 - 9 March 1685) was an influential Swiss-Italian Baroque painter of canvases and frescoes. He is little studied and has come only recently to the attention of art critics and historians. He intro ...

. Passau Cathedral's used to be the largest organ in the world. It still is the largest church organ outside USA. Over time, it has been outgrown by more recent instruments, for instance Wanamaker's organ in the USA. The organ currently has 17,774

pipes Pipe(s), PIPE(S) or piping may refer to: Objects * Pipe (fluid conveyance), a hollow cylinder following certain dimension rules ** Piping, the use of pipes in industry * Smoking pipe ** Tobacco pipe * Half-pipe and quarter pipe, semi-circula ...

and 233 registers, all of which can be played with the five-manual general console in the gallery. Portions of the organ have their own mechanical-action or electric-action consoles, for a total of six consoles. The cathedral has eight large bells in the bell rooms in the north and south towers. The heaviest,"Pummerin" at 7550 kg cast in 1952 and "Sturmerin" weighing 5300 kg cast in 1733 hang in the south tower. The other six bells hang in the north tower. They include: "Misericordia" weighing 6000 kg, the Angelus bell, "Predigerin", "Elfuhrglocken", the Choir bell, and "Dignitar". A ninth bell, the "Zeichenglocke" hangs near the sacristy door. File:Passau st stephan kanzel.jpg, Chancel File:St. Stephen's Cathedral Central Organ.jpg, Main west Organ in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Passau File:Dome paintings.jpg, Dome paintings

Additional information

*The information in this article is based on that in its German equivalent. *The organs at this cathedral have continually been added to over the years. The "organ" is really several separate organs of different tonal styles all accessible from one or more consoles. Likewise, the organs of the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, California, USA have grown over the years and play from twin consoles; together, the two organs have 346 ranks and over 20,000 pipes. By contrast, the Cadet Chapel Organ of the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York is a single organ. It has also been added to continuously over the years and is larger still with more than 23,500 pipes. It plays from a single console. * List of pipe organs

Recordings (selection)

* Die Passauer Domorgel : The most beautiful organ in the world Passau Cathedral

Helga Schauerte-Maubouet Helga Schauerte-Maubouet (born 8 Mars, 1957, Lennestadt) is a German-French organist, writer and editor of music. Schauerte has recorded the complete organ works of Jehan Alain, Dietrich Buxtehude, and J. S. Bach (in process), portraits of Butts ...

, (Syrius, 141310) 1995.

External links

Passau Cathedral Organ

St. Stephen's Cathedral

{{Authority control

Cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

Passau Cathedral St. Stephen's Cathedral (german: Dom St. Stephan) is a baroque church from 1688 in Passau, Germany, dedicated to Saint Stephen. It is the seat of the Catholic Bishop of Passau and the main church of his diocese. Since 730, there have been many ...