Love Locks

Alstereisvergnügen Hamburg

Love Locks at the Schwanenwik Bridge

Love padlocks have existed for quite some time, though there are no certain sources for their origin. The reasons love padlocks started to appear vary between locations, and in many instances are unsourced.

Rome Italy
Ponte Milvio

In Rome, the ritual of affixing love padlocks to the bridge Ponte Milvio can be attributed to a 2006 romance movie based upon the novel "Ho Voglia di Te". It started a ritual now wildly popular with young couples. In the movie, a teenage couple is seen writing their names on an ordinary padlock and locking it with a chain around a lamppost. Both the novel (a sequel to "Tre Metri Sopra il Cielo") and the movie were hugely popular with Italian teenagers, who began to imitate the practice on the Ponte Milvio, then throwing the keys into the Tiber in a gesture of undying love.
So many young lovers imitated the ritual that the lamppost had begun to buckle under the weight of so many padlocks. The loss of the lamppost did not stop young lovers from the rest of Italy coming to the bridge in order to chain their locks.

Vrnjack Banja Serbia
Most Ljubavi "Bridge of Love"

In Serbia the origin can be traced to even before World War II.  A local schoolmistress named Nada, who was from Vrnjačka Banja, fell in love with a Serbian officer named Relja. After they committed to each other Relja went to war in Greecee where he fell in love with another woman. As a consequence, Relja and Nada broke up their engagement. Nada never recovered, suffering from overwhelming sorrow she faded away day after day and finally died.  Upset by Nada’s destiny, girls, wishing to keep their own romances, started writing down their names along with the names of their lovers on padlocks that they bound to the railing of the bridge which used to be the favorite meeting place of Nada and Relja. Afterward the keys were symbolically thrown into the river. New wars and sufferings came up. The story fell into oblivion, and the girl’s custom to “bind” their love became uncustomary. It had been case until Desanka Maksimovic, according to the stories of old residents of Vrnjacka Banja spa, became acquainted with this tragic story. Inspired by it she wrote down one of her most beautiful love poems “A Prayer for Love”, (Molitva za ljubav). Although we tend to forget things, this story remains to be unforgotten, and in order to prolong its existence the young couples kept on with the tradition of “binding” their love and it bridge itself got the name “THE BRIDGE OF LOVE”

Moscow Russia
Luzhkov Bridge

In Russia, it is common for newly-weds and lovers to write their names on locks and lock the locks in a public place (trees, bridges, etc.); thus celebrating their love and commitment to each other. The key is then tossed into the Moskva river to seal their love...may the lovers never separate.  Originally the padlocks were attached to the sides of the bridge, but then these 'Trees of Love' were "planted" on the bridge, so the padlocks placed on the trees are more decorative as you see. The bridge called "Luzhkov most" takes you to the Tretyakov Gallery.

Montevideo Uruguay
Fountain of the Locks

On a fountain in Montevideo in Uruguay, a plaque is affixed to the front of the fountain that provides an explanation in both English and Spanish. The English version of the text reads, "The legend of this young fountain tells us that if a lock with the initials of two people in love is placed in it, they will return together to the fountain and their love will be forever locked."