The Church of the Holy Cross holds a pair of crystal urns within its stone pillars. One contains the heart of Frédéric Chopin, brought back from Paris in eighteen eighty-two according to his final wishes. During the Warsaw Uprising in nineteen forty-four, German forces drove a tank filled with explosives into the main entrance, collapsing the facade and shattering the interior. Parishioners later recovered the heart from the ruins, and the building stands restored today as a centerpiece of the Krakowskie Przedmieście.
Church of the Holy Cross
religious