And finally… Heart of brass
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Mayor Pierre David
The heart of a Belgian city’s first mayor has been found inside a small zinc casket during the renovation of a fountain.
The ornate fountain in Verviers held the organ, sealed in a jar of alcohol, for more than a century.
Mayor Pierre David died in 1839, but the fountain named after him was only inaugurated in 1883.
An engraving on the casket reads: “The heart of Pierre David was solemnly placed in the monument on 25 June 1883”.
The casket is now on show in the city’s Museum of Fine Arts.
Quoted by broadcaster RTBF, The Verviers Alderman for Public Works, Maxime Degey, said the casket found by the builders on August 20 was “in really impeccable condition”.
Mayor Pierre David died in a fall aged 68, while working in his hayloft in 1839.
The city authorities launched a collection fund for a monument to honour him, and with his family’s consent surgeons removed his heart, so that it could be entombed in the monument.
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