Love Lock - When Love is Heavy

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If you love traveling, you might get used to with image of a bridge rail or a fence in a big city that is full of padlocks from lovers or couples around the world, to represent their eternal love.

I have first learnt about the existence of this ‘love lock’ or ‘love padlock’ concept when I traveled to Paris last ten years. And I have seen this ‘mode’ again through social media platforms where my friends showing off their photos visiting the Seoul Tower – I then believed that the Koreans had definitely copied the French. 😆 But I have changed this thought when I saw love padlocks again in Cologne, Germany. So where did this concept come from? And since when we adapted this concept to the touristic culture? I wanted to learn about this too! So I then looked up for its history to report you here:

Love locks at Hohenzollern Bridge, Cologne, Germany

The concept of love lock dated back more than 100 years ago, during the WWI. In VrnjačkaBanja, Serbia, a schoolmistress named Nada fell in love with a military man named Relja. The couple had committed to each other before Relja was obliged to go to war in Greece. Alas, when he was there, Relja forgot about his lover and fell in love with a local woman from Corfu. After the breaking off their engagement, Nada suffered from her misfortunate love and finally died from heartbreak. Hearing of this tragic love, young women in Vrnjačka Banja started to write down their names and their lovers’ on padlocks and affixed them to the rail of the bridge where Nada and Relja met in order to protect their own loves. However, this ritual has faded away with time, but then boomed again because of the poem ‘A Prayer for Love’ (unknown year) of a Serbian writer and poet, DesankaMaksimović. As a consequence, the bridge was named ‘Most Ljubavi’ which means ‘Bridge of Love’ that is well-known until today.

The concept of love lock began widely in the early 2000s in various countries, such as Italy, France, Germany, England, U.S., Canada and Australia. However, this ritual has been criticized as an act of vandalism, and these padlocks needed to be taken out (which costs some money in this case). – If you can’t see how the love lock concept can damage public property, let’s have a look at the following info.

Some few love locks at Pont des Amours, Annecy

On 9 June2014, a part of Pont des Arts bridge’ railing in Paris has collapsed because of the weight of the love padlocks that had been affixed to. The bridge has been closed for a few hours letting the experts to remove the damaged panel. Anyway, with the weight of the padlocks, each panel has been estimated to be around 700 kg. In 2015, the City Hall of Paris finally decided to remove all the locks on the bridge and replaced them with a temporary street art exhibition from famous artists. All of the taken down locks weighed approximately 45 tons! Apart from the Pont des Arts, the ‘lock style’ has extended to Pont de l'Archevêché bridge and Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor which are over the Seine river like Pont des Arts.

Love padlocks at Pont Neuf, Paris

I took the upper photo of these love locks in 2017 on Pont Neuf bridge, which is next to Pont des Arts. Seeing them brings me a strong empathy for the city. I want to tell them that “This is going to be tough” because there are still more than 30 bridges in Paris, where those lovers can attach and declare their love on. 😅

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