Explained: Why an emperor’s embalmed heart is on a ‘state visit’ to Brazil

The Portuguese government agreed to loan the heart to Brazil for three weeks for the bicentennial celebration, after which it arrived in Brasilia in an airforce plane and its stay will be treated as a “state visit”.

The heart will receive full state guest honours before returning to Portugal after Brazil’s Independence Day.

Pedro I ‘the Liberator’

When Napoleon and his troops conquered Portugal in 1807, the royal family, including Pedro, fled to the country’s flourishing colony, Brazil. Pedro remained here as regent when his father, King John, returned to Portugal in 1821 due to a political revolution in Lisbon. He was 22 years old by this time.

Brazil had a degree of political autonomy since 1808 but this was threatened when the Portuguese parliament wanted to reinstate its colonial status. When the parliament demanded that Pedro return to Lisbon, he declared Brazil’s independence. Within three months, he was crowned emperor and within a couple of years, he had defeated all armies loyal to Portugal. He abdicated the throne 1831 and went back to Portugal, where he led an army in Porto in support of the constitutionalists amid a bid to return the country to absolute monarchy. Portugal too celebrates him as a champion of representative rule.

The embalmed heart

Dom Pedro I died in Portugal in 1834 at the age of 35 because of tuberculosis. According to his dying wishes, his heart was removed from his body, preserved and placed in an altar in the church of Our Lady of Lapa in Porto, Portugal.

In 1972, Brazil was given back the rest of his remains to commemorate 150 years of the country’s independence. Those remains are kept at a museum in Sao Paulo.

The heart of Dom Pedro I is preserved in formaldehyde in an urn-shaped vase.

The 9kg urn, the Guardian said, will be on display for 17 days at Itamaraty Palace, the headquarters of Brazil’s foreign ministry.

Celebrations around the organ

The 188-year-old embalmed heart is at the centre of Brazil’s ceremonies. “The coming of Pedro I’s heart to Brazil will be an opportunity for the Brazilian people to pay a tribute to a central figure of Brazil’s independence process,” Brazil’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The organ arrived from Portugal on Monday in a Brazilian air force plane. President Jair Bolsonaro welcomed the reliquary with a cannon-fired salute.

Bolsonaro, who is running for reelection, has been criticised for playing politics with the celebrations through the use of Dom Pedro I’s heart.

Meanwhile, during its stay in Brazil, the heart will also be under the watch of a Portuguese police official.

Embalmed for eternity

Embalming was prevalent as a technique across civilisations, starting right with the mummification of ancient Egyptians (although most organs were removed from the body, except the heart). King Richard I (Richard, the Lionheart) died in 1199 and his heart was sent to Rouen, where it was embalmed and entombed in a sarcophagus bearing his image in the Church of Notre-Dame. It was placed in a small lead box, with the inscription on the lid: ‘Here is the heart of Richard, King of England’.

In 2015, five embalmed hearts were found in heart-shaped lead urns underneath the basement of the Convent of the Jacobins in Rennes, France. In some cases, burials found a romantic aspect, in which a spouse would be buried with the embalmed heart of their beloved.