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Heart of Frédéric Chopin

Body parts of individual peopleCommons category link is locally definedFrédéric ChopinHeartMonuments and memorials in Warsaw
Monuments and memorials to Frédéric Chopin
Chopin herz (cropped)
Chopin herz (cropped)

The heart of Frédéric Chopin was separated from his body after he died in Paris, France, on 17 October 1849, aged 39. The Polish composer Frédéric Chopin had a fear of being buried alive and requested that his physician Jean Cruveilhier perform an autopsy. While Chopin's body was buried at the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, his heart was immersed in alcohol (probably cognac) and placed in an oak container. Before his death, one of Chopin's last requests was that his eldest sister, Ludwika Jędrzejewicz, take his heart to Poland to be buried at a local church. She complied with his wishes, smuggling his heart through customs at the Austrian border, past Russian border agents and into Poland. It was given to the Holy Cross Church in Warsaw and kept in the catacombs. After a local journalist discovered the heart in a box, it was transferred to the upper part of the church in 1879 and immured in a pillar. During the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, Chopin's heart was taken from the church by Nazi officials to the headquarters of SS commander Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski. It was later returned to the Polish people and sent to Milanówek for safekeeping. On 17 October 1945, a delegation transported the heart back to Warsaw, where it was returned to its place in the Holy Cross Church. Speculation as to the reason for Chopin's premature death led to requests by scholars and scientists to conduct an analysis of the heart tissue. While he was said to have died from tuberculosis, it was speculated that he may have had cystic fibrosis. A request to sample the heart tissue was refused by the Polish government, but the heart's container was secretly removed from the pillar for a visual inspection in 2014.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Heart of Frédéric Chopin (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Heart of Frédéric Chopin
Krakowskie Przedmieście, Warsaw Śródmieście

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N 52.238694444444 ° E 21.016972222222 °
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Kościół pw. Świętego Krzyża (Bazylika pw. Świętego Krzyża)

Krakowskie Przedmieście 3
00-927 Warsaw, Śródmieście
Masovian Voivodeship, Poland
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Chopin herz (cropped)
Chopin herz (cropped)
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