Ora Pois: Heart of Dom Pedro 1st will be exposed to the public in Portugal

Normally kept under tight security and away from the public eye, the heart of Dom Pedro 1º will gain a brief exhibition in Portugal. The organ of the former monarch, kept in a glass urn and preserved in formaldehyde, can be visited in the church of Lapa, in Porto.

The exhibition will be divided into two periods: August 20 and 21, just before the relic is sent to Brazil, and September 11 and 12, shortly after the piece returns.

The heart of the author of the cry of Ipiranga will be one of the main attractions of the 200th anniversary celebrations of Brazil’s independence. Therefore, at the request of the Brazilian government, the Portuguese authorities agreed to the loan.

Before taking the decision, Porto City Council, which has the final word on the matter, commissioned a scientific analysis to assess the feasibility of transferring the heart of the former king, who is one of the central figures in the city’s history.

Specialist on the subject, historian Francisco Ribeiro da Silva stated, in an interview with the newspaper Expresso, that the exposure of the organ to the public is something “absolutely unprecedented”.

Due to the fragility of the material –kept for almost 188 years since Dom Pedro’s death–, access to the heart is quite restricted.

For the transatlantic voyage, the authorities prepared a special operation to ensure the preservation of the organ.

The heart must remain in Brazil for 20 days. The outbound trip is scheduled for the night of August 21st and the return trip is scheduled for September 9th.

“The heart of our Dom Pedro will be received with the honors of a head of state, with cannon salutes and escorted by the Dragons of Independence, he will be away for about 20 days, but he will return with more recognition and admiration on the part of the Brazilian people”, he said. the mayor of Porto (a position equivalent to that of mayor), Rui Moreira.

Known as Dom Pedro 4º in Portugal, the monarch determined in his will that his heart would remain in the city of Porto.

The gesture was an acknowledgment of the importance of Porto in the struggle that Dom Pedro waged against the troops of his younger brother, Dom Miguel, for the throne of Portugal. Even under siege for more than a year, the city resisted and was crucial for the victory of Pedro 1º, who would die of tuberculosis months after the end of the conflict, in September 1834, at the age of 35.