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The heart of Emperor Pedro I returns to Brazil for a ‘state visit’

#heart #Emperor #Pedro #returns #Brazil #state #visit

Nearly two centuries after it was excised from his body and stuffed in formaldehyde, the heart of Emperor Pedro I, who declared Brazil’s independence from Portugal, returned on Monday for politically charged commemorations of the South American nation’s 200th birthday.

Dom Pedro, a popular figure in both Brazilian and Portuguese history, was divided between the two countries at death – his heart in a church in Porto, Portugal and the rest of his remains in an independence monument in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

But after Porto city officials agreed to return the borrowed heart, it returned to Brazil on September 7 for the country’s bicentenary of independence celebrations.

The heart, kept in a glass jar in a gold urn, arrived with all the pomp and circumstance of a state visit.

“It will be treated as if Dom Pedro I were alive and with us … as if it were a state visit by a foreign leader,” said Alan Coelho, head of ceremonial protocol at Brazil’s foreign ministry.

As a nine-year-old boy, Dom Pedro fled to Brazil with his family when Napoleon’s army invaded Portugal in 1807.

He stayed behind to rule what was then the colony as regent when his father, King Joao VI, returned home to the increasingly troubled metropolis in 1821.

Faced with pressure to limit the colony’s political autonomy, Pedro I instead declared it an independent country on September 7, 1822.

Known in Portugal as Pedro IV, he abdicated in 1831 and led an army to Porto to support the Constitutionals who were fighting to prevent his younger brother from usurping the throne and returning the country to absolute monarchy.

After his death from tuberculosis in 1834, he was celebrated in both Brazil and Portugal as a champion of liberal causes and representative rule.

The heart has a busy schedule for its visit.

President Jair Bolsonaro will hold an official ceremony with military honors on Tuesday.

The far-right leader, who is running for re-election in October, has been accused of fueling nationalism with his Independence Day plans.

The urn, weighing nine kilograms, will then be displayed at the Foreign Ministry’s headquarters, the Itamaraty Palace, for 17 days before being returned to Portugal.

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