Chopin's heart in Warsaw

A heart in a church pillar

Chopin died in Paris in 1849 and is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery, but his heart is in Warsaw. Wikipedia's article on Holy Cross Church says his heart is interred in the church, in an urn immured in a pillar in the late 19th century, while his body lies in Paris. The two Wikipedia articles give slightly different years for the sealing, so this guide says only that it happened in the late 19th century. The pillar is the reason many visitors step into the church.

How the heart came home

Wikipedia's Chopin article says that, as Chopin requested, his sister Ludwika took his heart, preserved in alcohol in a vase, back to Poland in 1850. Jane Stirling paid for the return of Ludwika to Warsaw. The return is part of the story of a composer who left Poland in 1830 at the age of 20 and never returned, yet who is claimed by the city more firmly than almost anyone else.

The funeral in Paris

Wikipedia says the funeral, held at the Church of the Madeleine in Paris, was delayed almost two weeks until 30 October 1849. The funeral procession to Père Lachaise Cemetery was led by the aged Prince Adam Czartoryski. Chopin's grave is there today, and the heart that went to Warsaw is therefore a second resting place, reached because he asked for his heart to be taken to Poland.

The church on Krakowskie Przedmieście

Holy Cross Church is on Krakowskie Przedmieście, across from the main campus of Warsaw University. The street also runs past the palace where Chopin lived with his family in 1827–30. A walk along it therefore links the church, the former family home and the palace where, in 1818, he is said to have given what is probably his first public concert. It is a street that suits an afternoon before a Chopin evening.

1944, 1945 and the rebuilding

Wikipedia records that the church was severely damaged in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, losing its facade and many Baroque furnishings. The Germans blew it up in January 1945. It was rebuilt between 1945 and 1953 in a simplified architectural form by B. Zborowski, and the interior was reconstructed without the Baroque polychromes and frescos. According to the Chopin article, the heart was returned to its place in the church on 17 October 1945, the 96th anniversary of his death.

Chopin in Warsaw today

Chopin's name runs through the city. Wikipedia notes that the world's oldest monographic music competition, the International Chopin Piano Competition, is held every five years in Warsaw, and that the busiest of the city's three international airports is Warsaw Chopin Airport. The Fryderyk Chopin Institute lists over eighty societies worldwide devoted to the composer. A heart in a church pillar, a competition and an airport are three very different ways a city keeps a composer close.

Visiting respectfully

Holy Cross is a working church, so treat it as a place of worship first and a sight second: dress modestly, keep your voice low and do not photograph worshippers. Opening and service times change, and this guide does not list them, so check the church's own notices before you go. If a service is in progress, the heart can wait for another visit. The evening concert, by contrast, is a booked seat with a start time shown in the calendar.

Pairing the church with a concert

The church and the salon concert tell the same story from two ends: the heart in the city he left, and the music in a room that recalls the ones he played. If you visit Holy Cross by day and book the Chopin Salon for the evening, you have seen where his heart rests and heard a pianist play the music he wrote. The guide to the Warsaw salons covers the rooms of his youth, and the guide for first-time listeners covers the forms.

Read next: Chopin and the Warsaw salons