asides

Locks of love

I don’t quite know where this tradition started, but I’ve seen in in different countries. Hundreds, even thousands of padlocks on some fence or fixture. In Krakow, Poland, the pedestrian bridge across the Vistula River is where this expression of love is in full swing, but with a twist: After the lovers lock the padlock onto the bridge, they toss the key into the river. So now there are hundreds, even thousands of padlock keys at the bottom of the river.  

Some of these couples are pretty creative with their padlocks, decorating them and personalizing them in ways that suit their lifestyles, such as a couple that we can only assume are cyclists because they affixed a bike lock. Others have used some cool-looking locks that appear to be centuries old, right down to the rust.

But what happens when the love is gone and these couples separate, whatever the reason? Apparently some don’t believe in forgetting the locks and leaving well alone. Some have returned to the bridge and obviously spent a lot of time prying the locks right off the wire mesh, damaging the bridge, as you see in some of the photos. To go to such drastic steps,  somebody must have really pissed somebody else off, like real bad. Maybe the city of Krakow should invest in bolt cutters and just place them at each end of the bridge in much the same way we place fire extinguishers in public places. A sort of save the bridge from scorned lovers measure.

Broken heart = broken lock = broken bridge

Related articles

• Rome removes ‘padlocks of love’ (bbc.co.uk)
• Padlocks removed from Ponte Milvio bridge (telegraph.co.uk)
• Krakow, Poland’s Romantic Second City (weddingsnowandthen.wordpress.com)
• “Lovers locks” to be cut from Roman bridge (boingboing.net)
• Krakow – Krakow, Poland (travelpod.com)
• Girls’ night out in Kraków (krakowpolska.wordpress.com)
• Padlocks Of Love Removed From Bridge In Rome (gadling.com)