Napoleon Bonaparte's Last Doctor Lived, Passed Away in Santiago de Cuba
Francisco Antonmarchi Mettei, the last doctor of Napoleon Bonaparte, lived in Santiago de Cuba and his mortal remains are buried in the Santa Ifigenia graveyard.
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On April 3, 1838, Antonmarchi passed away in Santiago de Cuba at the age of 49 due to the yellow fever, a disease he studied, and he is buried in the Portuondo family’s tomb, since they were his patients and held the title of marquis of Delicias de Tempú at the time.
Nowadays, this information has been proved by the research carried out by doctor Antonio Cobo Abreu, a forensic medicine expert, who confirmed that the corpse they had exhumed belonged to this French doctor that witnessed the death of one of the greatest military strategists in the history of mankind. The word was put on the map within the framework of the 1994 Caribbean Festival, dedicated to French-speaking people.
The images of the exhumation showed well-preserved different bone structures, which had belonged to a nearly 50-year-old European man, who was 6.3 feet tall and had died over a century ago.
“Del Caribe” magazine’s 23rd issue included a vast article written by Cobo Abreu, featuring Napoleon’s last words as a response to the indications issued by doctor Antonmarchi:
“When I die –he said- I wish you to open my body and take my heart out, put it in wine and take it to Parma, where you’ll give it to my beloved María Luisa. Afterwards, go to Rome, visit my mother and family and tell them that the great Napoleon has passed away on this sad rock in the most unfavorable situation, lacking of everything, abandoned.
Antonmarchi was Napoleon Bonaparte’s doctor since September 18, 1819, until May 5, 1821, when Bonaparte died on Santa Elena Island. His work as a doctor has always been questioned in terms of Napoleon’s death, and some people have even speculated that he poisoned the emperor.
After Napoleon was gone, Francisco visited different European countries and worked as a surgeon. He later decided to move to the American continent. He lived in the United States, in Louisiana to be precise; afterwards, he went to Mexico and travelled to Havana in early 1837.
Among the valuable objects he was carefully carrying during his journeys, he had cast of the death mask he made of Bonaparte moments after his passing, as well as the Emperor’s memoirs. From Havana he went to Santiago de Cuba and, on his way there, he stopped in Puerto Príncipe, presently Camagüey, where he lived some months, and Bayamo was his last stop before Santiago.
When he was in Santiago de Cuba, he visited his only relative, Antonio Benjamín Antonmarchi and Chaignean, who was his first cousin and owned the San Antonio coffee plantation near Santiago del Prado, the present El Cobre.
The doctor quickly became famous within the Santiago society because of his professional and personal values. He was known as “The doctor of the Emperor”. He practiced several surgeries and procedures, such as the treatment applied to cataract, and in spite of the short time he had lived in the easternmost region of Cuba he used to tell his relatives that he had lived the happiest moments of his life in Santiago de Cuba.
According to the benefactor of the city, Mr. Emilio Bacardí Moreau, we owe this doctor one of the first health posts in Santiago, at Gallo Street, Toro corner.
Francisco Antonmarchi was born on the island of Corsica, France, on July 6, 1789, in a well-off family. His father, Juan Antonmarchi, was a prestigious notary. He studied Medicine at the University of Florence. People that met him used to say that he was an active, intelligent and talkative man.
Doctor Francisco Antonmarchi Mettei was way more than the last doctor of Napoleon Bonaparte. He was an avant-garde scientist and outstanding representative of French migrations to Cuba during the 19th century. He used his science and knowledge to serve the society. His mortal remains lie in this indomitable city and its citizens are proud of it.
