During his final days at his home in Paris, the renowned Polish composer Frédéric Chopin made an unusual request, asking his sister Ludwika Jędrzejewicz to arrange for his heart to be taken from his corpse and smuggled back into his home country. He did this for both sentimental and practical reasons. You see, he had a fear of being buried alive (taphophobia) so the removal of his heart from his body was, in part, to ensure that he would be absolutely and properly dead before being buried in the ground.

Jędrzejewicz complied with his request, taking the heart before his body could be buried and secreting it back to Poland in a jar of alcohol (probably cognac) and placed in an oak container. She hid the package under her cloak, avoiding officers and Russian border agents along the way. [Ed: Anything to declare Ma’am?]

She was able to smuggle it all the way to the Holy Cross Church in Warsaw. It was initially kept in the catacombs. Although Chopin was revered, he was no saint (and we mean that literally); but, after a local journalist discovered the heart in a box, it was transferred to the upper part of the church in 1879 and encased within a pillar that also bore a small commemorative bust.

During the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, as well as outlawing the playing of his music, Chopin's heart was taken from the church by Nazi officials and delivered to the headquarters of SS commander Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, who kept it as part of his collection of curios. [Ed: Classicly creepy Nazi behaviour.]

It was later returned to the Polish people, and 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—he was only 39—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. What struck the examiners was the size of the heart. For a figure of average height and slight build it is immeasurably large. An article published in the American Journal of Medicine in 2017, suggested that the likely cause of his death was a rare case of pericarditis caused by complications of chronic tuberculosis.

Finally, Chopin’s Heart is a short by Polish American filmmaker Marian Marzynski about the The International Chopin Piano Competition. Held every five years in Warsaw, it is the “piano Olympics” wherein 800 participants compete, with one winner chosen and launched into a worldwide performing career. Chopin’s heart, imbued with the soulful talent of its donor, is used as a metaphor for the intangible quality that mysteriously elevates one participant above the rest. Watch it HERE.

Story Idea: Elizabeth Jigalin
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References

wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin
wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_of_Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin
atlasobscura.com/places/chopin-s-heart
lifeonmarz.com/

Images

1. Frédéric Chopin in 1847
2. Chopin on His Deathbed, by Teofil Kwiatkowski, 1849, commissioned by Jane Stirling. Chopin's sister Ludwika seated at left.
3. Chopin's heart preserved in alcohol
4. SS commander Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski
5. President Bolesław Bierut hands the urn containing Chopin's heart to Warsaw mayor Stanisław Tołwiński in 1945
6. The pillar in Holy Cross Church containing Chopin's heart, Photo credit: Billy Wirawan.
7. Inscription on the pillar containing Chopin's heart in Warsaw's Holy Cross Church
8. Video: Chopin’s Heart by Marian Marzynski, 2005