Musical accompaniment: Jonathan Scott playing the pipe organ at the Basilica of Our Lady of Licheń.

I wanted some soaring music for this magnificent 1909 picture inside the Salon de Locomotion Aerienne Grand Palais in Paris. I was reading about the pipe organ and found it quite as interesting as the picture!

In the village of Licheń Stary in Poland, population 1500, sits the Basilica of Our Lady of Licheń. Priests of the order of Marian Fathers promote devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary there. Over time, the village and its 17th century oil painting of the Blessed Virgin became a popular destination for Catholic pilgrims and in the 1990s, the old church couldn’t accommodate them.  A new church was completed in 2002, and blessed by Pope John Paul II. Inside the basilica is a massive pipe organ designed by Andrzej Chorosiński and built by Zakłady Organowe Zych. The organ has 157 stops, 12,323 pipes, and a 12-second reverberation. It was completed in 2007.

The 1909 picture is the work of an unknown photographer. I love the dirigibles–or are they zeppelins–and the leaded glass windows.

I don’t know if Albert Khan’s 1914 autochrome photo of air balloons was taken in the same place but it looks similar, right?