It took nearly four months of negotiations for the Portuguese authorities to accede to the request of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. On the occasion of the bicentenary of the independence of Brazil, next September 7, Lisbon announced last week that it agreed to lend for less than a year to its former South American colony the heart of the first Brazilian emperor, Dom Pedro Iisdied in 1834.
Entrusted in 1835 to the Church of Our Lady of Lapa, in Porto, at the request of the sovereign himself, the relic “is preserved in formalin, in a glass container”, Explain The globe. To get there, “careful maneuvering is required: first, [on utilise] a key to remove a heavy copper plate, then two keys to remove a grid, another to open a kind of chest and the last lock gives access to the silver vase where the urn is”specifies the daily newspaper of Rio de Janeiro.
Before Portugal agreed to lend the emperor’s relic, a “five-hour examination was carried out by experts from the Institute of Forensic Medicine of Porto”who have “certified that the heart could leave the church of Lapa without running any risk”provided it is sent to Brazil “in a pressurized environment”, indicates a columnist of the newspaper in another article. The South American country will take care of the transport in use.