Secret heart in a fountain

WORKMEN restoring a city fountain found a hidden metal casket containing the pickled heart of the area’s first mayor.

Engravings on the chest, discovered in the Belgian city of Verviers, said the ‘heart of Pierre David was solemnly placed in the monument on 25 June 1883’. Mr David had died accidentally in 1839, aged 68.

The heart was kept in the town hall for 44 years before being sealed inside the fountain.