The heart of Frédéric Chopin is preserved in a pillar of Holy Cross Church in Warsaw. After Chopin died in Paris on 17 October 1849 at the age of 39, his heart was removed during an autopsy performed by the physician Jean Cruveilhier. While his body was buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery, the heart was preserved in alcohol (probably cognac) and later taken to Poland by his sister Ludwika Jędrzejewicz in accordance with his wishes. The heart was placed in the Holy Cross Church and immured in a pillar in 1879. During the Warsaw Uprising it was removed by German authorities but returned after the war. It has been the subject of scientific interest concerning Chopin’s cause of death, traditionally attributed to tuberculosis; a visual inspection in 2014 supported this diagnosis.
Death and removal of heart
Composer Frédéric Chopin suffered from poor health throughout his life, including respiratory problems, chronic diarrhea, and significant weight loss. As an adult, he weighed less than 45 kilograms (99 lb). In 1849, anticipating his death, Chopin made arrangements for his funeral. He had a fear of being buried alive (taphophobia) and asked his sister, Ludwika Jędrzejewicz, to remove his heart and transport it to Warsaw for burial at a local church. Chopin died in Paris on 17 October 1849. The day before his death, Chopin requested that his physician, Jean Cruveilhier, perform an autopsy. During the procedure, Cruveilhier removed Chopin's heart and submerged it in alcohol, probably cognac. His body was at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, while his heart was placed in a hermetically sealed crystal jar. In early 1850, his sister transported the heart to Poland, where it would eventually be treated as an exceptional artefact within the culture of Poland, afforded the respect usually reserved for saintly relics.
Smuggling the heart into Poland In early January 1850, Chopin's eldest sister, Ludwika Jędrzejewicz, returned from France by rail to Poland with her daughter and her brother's heart. She carried the heart with her, concealing its container underneath her cloak or skirt as she smuggled it through a customs inspection at the Austrian border and past Russian border agents into Poland. Soviet music historian Igor Boelza wrote about her journey, explaining that Jędrzejewicz had hidden "a small oak trunk under her dress. In it was a casket made of ebony wood, containing a precious vessel holding Chopin's heart".
Chopin's heart arrived in Warsaw and was kept by his sister and mother, resting on top of a dresser at the home of Jędrzejewicz and the Kalasanty family. Prior to Jędrzejewicz's death in 1855, she may have arranged for the transfer of the heart to Warsaw's Holy Cross Church. There was opposition within the church's clergy to having the heart in the upper part of the church, as Chopin was not a saint. Instead, the heart was tucked away in the church's catacombs and lay there undisturbed and unlabeled for over two decades. In 1878, journalist Adam Pług found the heart in a box and wrote about his discovery in a Warsaw journal. The clergy of the church were persuaded to move the heart in part due to the fact that the heart of novelist Klementyna Hoffmanowa was being kept in the Wawel Cathedral. With the support of apostolic administrator Antoni Ksawery Sotkiewicz, the heart was moved to the upper part of the church on 1 March 1879 and immured in the first pillar on the left, facing towards the church's great nave. The transfer of the heart took place in secret due to fears that Tsarist authorities would seize it. Composer Władysław Żeleński was one of the organizers of the transfer ceremony, which was attended by around a dozen people. On 29 February 1880, Chopin's heart was consecrated. A tablet carved from Carrara marble by sculptor Leonard Marconi and dedicated to the memory of Chopin was installed on the pillar a week later. A biblical verse from Matthew 6:21 was inscribed onto one of the plaques: "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." For decades, the heart was the sole public monument in Warsaw honoring Chopin that the Tsarist authorities allowed. It drew "covert displays of nationalist fervor". Once Poland achieved independence in 1918, it became an open shrine. In 1926, Archbishop Antoni Szlagowski said of Chopin: "All our past sings in him, all our slavery cries in him, the beating heart of the nation, the great king of sorrows."
Nazi possession and return After the German Army captured Warsaw in 1939, performances of Chopin's music were banned, the Fryderyk Chopin Institute was shuttered, and the Frédéric Chopin Monument in Łazienki Park was destroyed. During the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, the Holy Cross Church was damaged and captured by the Nazis. A German priest by the name of Schulze requested that the occupying forces be allowed to take possession of Chopin's heart for safekeeping. It was taken by SS officer Heinz Reinefarth and then given to SS commander Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, who kept it at his headquarters as part of his collection of curios. As the occupation was drawing to a close, Bach-Zelewski, known for his brutal suppression of the uprising, returned the heart. Polish journalist Andrzej Pettyn, who wrote a definitive account of Chopin's heart, wrote that Bach-Zelewski's gesture "aimed at reducing his own fault and presenting himself to the world in a more favorable light." Bach-Zelewski ordered that Chopin's heart be transferred to the auxiliary bishop of Warsaw Antoni Szlagowski. German officials arranged for a film crew to document the transfer of the heart to Szlagowski as a part of Nazi propaganda. At the moment the urn containing the heart was to be handed over, the spotlights they were using malfunctioned, an event for which Szlagowski said to his colleagues: "Thank the Lord. This time these barbarians will not succeed in their propaganda ploy." Szlagowski had the heart transferred to St. Hedwig Church in Milanówek, escorted by a contingent of German soldiers.
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