Belgian town unearths missing heart of former mayor and solves a centuries-old mystery

A small zinc casket containing the heart of Pierre David

Credit: REUTERS / Alamy Stock Photo 

When Belgian builders unearthed a small metal box in the town of Verviers last summer, locals thought they had finally solved a centuries-old mystery: the whereabouts of a beloved mayor’s pickled heart. 

Now researchers at the University of Liege have used specialist X-ray technology to confirm that the grisly memorial did indeed belong to Pierre David, the town’s popular 19th-century leader who died during a farming accident nearly 200 years ago.

“We were unsatisfied since the discovery of the box, now we know what it contains," said Jean-François Chefneux, a local official in charge of cultural affairs.

The heart, encased in a zinc box, is currently on display in the town’s local museum.

David was the head of Verviers, near eastern Liege, from 1800 to 1839. He was in office when the country gained independence from the Netherlands, making him one of Belgium’s first mayors.

After his death, the town chose to honour him by removing his heart, pickling it in ethanol and installing it in a shrine — a popular custom at the time.

But the embalmed ticker fell victim to a menace that still lives on to this day: Belgian bureaucracy. The heart sat in the town hall for nearly fifty years as municipal negotiations dragged on and people gradually forgot about it.

No one knows what happened to it after that — until last summer when a restoration crew unearthed a small metal box while renovating a fountain in the town centre that was dedicated to the mayor. The inscription on the side bore the name of Pierre David.   

Archived documents seemed to support the authenticity of the find and the town’s museum proudly displayed the box in its own exhibit space.

But researchers at the University of Liege wanted to confirm if there really was a heart inside. They deployed cutting edge x-ray technology to peer inside the case without disturbing its contents.

The images, produced by a machine normally used for cancer treatments, show that there is indeed a well-preserved heart inside. The ventricles, atriums and aortas are all clear to see in the pictures.

The town museum has enthusiastically announced that “the secret of the box is finally revealed!” and will now include the 3D images in its exhibit.

There are also plans to restore the mayor’s heart to its original place once restoration works on the Verviers fountain finish in spring.