The great composer Frederic Chopin died in 1849 at the age of 39 in France. According to some reports, Chopin suffered from thanatophobia - the fear of false death, he was afraid of being buried alive. He bequeathed that after his death his heart should be removed from the body and transported to Poland. His will was carried out: the composer's body was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris, and the heart in alcohol was transported in a massive vessel from France to Poland and walled up in a column of the Church of the Holy Cross in Warsaw.
Until recently, the cause of the composer's death remained unclear. Many researchers were inclined to believe that he died of cystic fibrosis. Not so long ago, Chopin's heart was removed from the column and studied - this allowed specialists to draw different conclusions about the cause of the composer's death.
The vessel with the heart was seized in April 2014 - scientists, religious leaders and employees of the Chopin Institute took part in this process. They did not remove the organ from the container in which it was stored, conducting only a visual inspection. The vessel with the heart was photographed more than 1000 times, after which the vessel was again placed in the column of the Church of the Holy Cross.
The scientists concluded that an amber liquid was used for long-term preservation of the heart. They suggested that it was cognac, which was often used in those years for such purposes.
The heart turned out to be significantly enlarged in size, and outside it was covered with a layer of white matter. This gave the researchers reason to believe that this is a sign of pericarditis, an inflammation of the lining of the heart. Pericarditis was the result of tuberculosis, which the composer suffered from. Michal Witt, head of the research team, sums up that the composer died of complications of tuberculosis.
Establishing the true cause of Frederic Chopin's death is very important for Poland and the people of the country, the researcher believes. This is due to the fact that the composer's heart, stored in Warsaw, is a kind of national treasure, and the composer himself and his work are national pride.