Hansa Organ Project

The initiative to the project was taken by the organists in the St Mary Churches in Visby and Lübeck. They wanted to find ways to introduce organ music as a cultural element at Hanseatic Days, starting in Visby in 2025. The project was implemented from October 2023 to September 2025.

Project partners:
Saint Mary Cathedral in Visby (Sweden) 
St Marien zu Lübeck (Germany) 
Pro Musica Organa (Poland)
Cesis Municipality (Latvia)
HanseVerein e.V. (associated partner)

In the first phase of the project, the Hanseatic cities were invited to send in organ compositions in two different categories. The 15-20 winners will be selected by a jury and the pieces will be presented in a Hansa Organ Book that will be launched at the Hanseatic Day in Visby.

The second part of the project was focused on the establishment of a Hansa Organ Festival to promote organ music in and from Hanseatic cities in the long run. The project invited organists from Hanseatic cities to participate at the first festival of this kind during the Hanseatic Day in Visby in 2025. Gotland has a huge number of fascinating medieval churches with interesting organs and not only the organs in St Mary’s Cathedral were used during the festival.

In June 2025, an organ working group was initiated in order to ensure the sustainability of the project.

Contact:
Visby domkyrkoförsamling, Norra Kyrkogatan 2, 621 55 Visby, Sweden
Project manager: Inger Harlevi, inger.harlevi@svenskakyrkan.se, tel + 46 70 521 1260