The casket that held Gambetta’s heart

Following Léon Gambetta’s death on 31 December 1882 in the Chambre des Jardies, a post-mortem examination was carried out. But things did not go quite as planned… Discover the surprising story of Léon Gambetta’s heart!

A much-coveted heart

The accident

Léon Gambetta, a keen gun enthusiast, received a pair of pistols as a gift from his friend, the gunsmith Ferdinand Claudin. On 27 November 1882, whilst the politician was practising shooting at his estate in Les Jardies, he accidentally shot himself whilst trying to clear a cartridge jammed in the barrel. The bullet passed through the palm of his right hand and exited through his forearm, lodging in the bedroom door. Gambetta lost a great deal of blood; the wound was serious but not life-threatening. Surgeon Lannelongue nevertheless prescribed bed rest and a special diet. Two other doctors, Verneuil and Trélat, examined Gambetta and predicted a swift recovery.

Illness and death

However, the injured man’s condition deteriorates. Gambetta’s enforced immobility leads to a skin infection (erysipelas) and digestive problems (appendicitis and peritonitis). The majority of doctors ruled out any surgical intervention, which they deemed unnecessary. A long period of agony then ensued. On 31 December 1882, at five minutes to midnight, Gambetta died in his room at Les Jardies at the age of just 44.

Gambetta sur son lit de mort, huile sur toile de José Nin Y Tudo, 1883
Colombe Clier - Centre des monuments nationaux

The post-mortem

On 2 January 1883, a post-mortem examination was carried out.

Under the pretence of examining Gambetta’s body and the causes of his death, certain doctors removed and preserved organs from the orator as if they were relics.

Each took a fragment of Gambetta’s body: Odilon Lannelongue took the wounded right arm, Paul Bert the heart, Théodore-Édouard Fieuzal the skull, Mathias Duval the brain and Victor Cornil a piece of intestine.

L'autopsie ; dessin de G. Julien pour Le Journal illustré, 14 janvier 1883
Bibliothèque interuniversitaire de Santé Médecine Paris

The Gambetta cult

The heart was eventually returned by Paul Bert’s widow. In 1891, it was placed in the plinth of the Gambetta monument adjacent to the Maison des Jardies.

On 11 November 1920, the State decided to transfer Gambetta’s heart to the Panthéon.

A casket made of Alsatian cherry and walnut wood, a gift from the industrialists of Mulhouse, was used to transport it during a grand ceremony. The ceremony commemorated both the fiftieth anniversary of the proclamation of the Third Republic and the signing of the armistice ending the First World War.

The casket is now on display in the dressing room of the Maison des Jardies. To discover mementoes of this historic event, plan your next visit to Les Jardies!

La cérémonie d’hommage à Gambetta et au Soldat inconnu le 11 novembre 1920
Patrick Cadet - Centre des monuments nationaux

Video

Two years after the end of the First World War, the Government commemorated two events simultaneously: the fiftieth anniversary of the proclamation of the Third Republic by Léon Gambetta on 4 September 1870 from the balcony of Paris City Hall, and the signing of the armistice. The Government saw an opportunity to unite the nation around two figures who embodied the defence of the national territory. Gambetta, a great republican patriot of 1870, would be honoured alongside the republican martyr, the Unknown Soldier, who sacrificed himself so that France might regain the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, lost after the Franco-Prussian War.