Brazil has given Dom Pedro I a warm welcome - or what remains of the one-time Brazilian emperor.

Just in time for the 200th anniversary of Brazil's independence on September 7th, the preserved heart of the one-time monarch made it from its repository in Portugal to Brazil on a Brazilian Air Force flight.

It was received there on Tuesday in the presence of President Jair Bolsonaro and with military honors.

Tjerk Bruhwiller

Correspondent for Latin America based in São Paulo.

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Dom Pedro I was born in 1798 into the Portuguese royal family, which at the time also ruled over what was then the colony in present-day Brazil.

The royal family later fled to Brazil to escape Napoleon's troops invading Portugal.

Dom Pedro was nine years old at the time.

When Dom Pedro's father, João VI, returned to Portugal in 1821, he left dominion over Brazil to his then 22-year-old son.

Just a year later, Dom Pedro challenged the Portuguese Parliament, who wanted to keep Brazil as a colony, and refused to return to Portugal.

On September 7, 1822, he declared Brazil independent.

A little later he was crowned Emperor.

At the age of 35, Dom Pedro I died of tuberculosis during a stay in Portugal.

On his deathbed he wished for his heart to be taken from his body and taken to Porto.

Since then, the heart has been kept in a glass vase with formaldehyde in the church of Nossa Senhora da Lapa, guarded by the guardians of the brotherhood of the church.

Five keys are required to gain access to the vault.

The separate burial, in which the internal organs are buried separately from the rest of the body, and in particular the separate heart burial was often practiced until modern times and especially by high ecclesiastical dignitaries and aristocrats.

The other remains of Dom Pedro I were transferred to Brazil in 1972 on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of independence and during the military dictatorship.

There, the bones were first exhibited in various cities and later deposited at the Independence Monument in São Paulo, where they remain today.

However, the heart will be returned to Portugal after the Independence Day celebrations.

Until then, it will be on display in a secure glass container in the Palace of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Brasília, guarded by army and federal police security and framed by an exhibition on the life and work of the former emperor.

In February, the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs began negotiations with the Portuguese authorities to bring Dom Pedro's heart to Brazil.

First, experts from the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the University of Porto had to approve the transport of the fragile organ from a technical point of view.

The application was then submitted to the Porto City Council, which unanimously approved the trip.

The arrival of the Imperial Heart was celebrated in Brasília with all the military honours, guard of honor and cannon salute, as if it were a visit by a head of state.

"As if Dom Pedro were among us," said the master of ceremonies from the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs days before the extraordinary visitor.

Incidentally, instead of the visitor's national anthem, the independence anthem was played alongside the Brazilian anthem – composed 200 years ago by Dom Pedro himself.

The emperor is said to have devoted himself to music in his free time and to have had exceptional talent.