The Fortunes of a Cabinet Organ: Mysteries Unveiled about the Gideon Thomas Bätz Organ in Utrecht’s Domkerk

Since 1970, Utrecht Cathedral has housed the cabinet organ built by Gideon Thomas Bätz in 1796. Much about the instrument’s history remains uncertain. This article suggests that the organ originally stood in a house on the Kromme Nieuwegracht in Utrecht, owned by the Count of Athlone, Frederik Christiaan Reinhard van Reede, and his wife, Anna Elisabeth van Tuyll van Serooskerken. The couple was influential in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, dividing their time between Utrecht and Amerongen Castle. Van Reede served as chief bailiff of Utrecht and had close ties to the stadtholder’s court.

The organ was later moved to Middachten Castle, possibly following Anna Elisabeth’s death in 1819. Contrary to previous belief, the organ did not travel directly from Middachten Castle to the Eltheto church building in De Steeg. It is very likely that from 1845 to 1869, the instrument was housed in the Avegoor country house. It was subsequently donated to the Society for the Promotion of Christian Interests in Ellecom, which placed it in the Great Chapel. In 1956, the Society donated the organ to the Reformed Congregation of De Steeg. In the 1960s, it was sold to Flentrop Orgelbouw and then spent some time in the Buurkerk in Utrecht. Finally, in 1970, the organ was transferred from the Buurkerk to the Domkerk, only about two hundred meters from where it first sounded in 1796.

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  Het G.B. Bätz-orgel in de Domkerk te Utrecht. Foto: Jan Smelik

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  Het G.B. Bätz-orgel in de Domkerk te Utrecht. Foto: Jan Smelik

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  Kasteel Middachten. Foto: Reinoud G. Egberts