The padlock has been around since ancient times symbol of promise and dedicationand in Italy the custom of attaching them to bridges, fences, gates, monuments or public buildings as a promise of eternal love became famous after the film “I want you”, released in 2007. But already in the 1930s the TOItalian military cadets they attached the lock of their locker to the decks after taking leave, and a Serbian folk tradition tells of padlocks attached to bridges already during the First World War following an unfortunate love story. In the 70s in Hungary the padlock becomes a symbol of rebellion against dictatorshipsand is attacked on bridges in protest. According to the study “Finding love: The materialities of love-locks and geocaches” conducted by English researchers Ceri Houlbrook and Adam Parker, this custom, which is now part of the urban folkloretherefore originates in a mix of different episodes, legends and places which led, over time, to its diffusion.
The story of the love lock: a symbol of devotion
The lock is one ancient security toolof which rudimentary examples were also found in the excavations of Pompeii: it already symbolized centuries ago promise and commitment and for this reason it has become a habit to attach it in sacred places, as a sign of devotion. In ancient Rome, according to some testimonies, women used to hang padlocks dedicated to Venus in temples, as a symbolic gesture to “tighten” the partner’s love and guarantee his fidelity.
For example, in ancient Persia and in general in the Eastthey used to be attached to the tombs of saints and prominent religious figures, with the same functionality as the ex-voto: since the padlock is a solid and “impregnable” instrument, close it on a tomb or in a place of worship sealed the prayer made and was a symbol of faith, commitment and perseverance. For the same reason it is not at all uncommon to find closed padlocks around the grates of Christian sanctuaries, where the faithful go to ask for Grace or to thank for having received it, to pray to the Saints to whom they are devoted.
Similar rituals, in which the padlock represented the protection of a bond, are also documented in the Middle Ages, when it was used as a metaphor for guarding the heart and the promise of love. These uses, stratified over the centuries, have probably favored the fortune of modern practices, which have updated an ancient symbol loading it with new political, cultural and emotional meanings.
The spread of the custom of padlocks as a symbol of the bond of love it could have originated in Serbia in the years of the First World War. The story – which we don’t know whether to be fact or legend – tells that, in the Serbian city of Vrnjačka Banja a teacher named Nada, and Relja, a soldier leaving for Greece, they fell in love: they swore eternal love and got engaged, but Relja in Corfu fell in love with another woman and broke off the engagement. Nada, desperate, died of a broken heart and their affair became famous: from that moment, the girls of Vrnjačka Banja began to close padlocks on the bridge Most Ljubaviliterally “the bridge of love”, with the symbolic purpose of protect their bonds from bad luck which instead had hit Nada. The bridge quickly became filled with padlocks and also became famous for its name which recalled love, and the custom began to spread throughout Europe.
What is the meaning of the love lock
Another symbolic place of padlocks attached to bridges is theHungaryprecisely the city of Pécs where, in the 70s, this custom rapidly spread: in this case it was a form of rebellion promoted by the punk community against Cold War regimes.
The padlock is chosen precisely as tribute to Sid Viciousbassist for the Sex Pistols, who wore a padlock attached to his neck like sign of resistance against conventions. From Hungary the habit spreads like wildfire, thus combining an already known gesture with a new symbolic meaning, probably encountering other already consolidated traditions.
Today this object represents the union between two people, protection and eternal love.
Where they are attacked in Italy and why they are a risk
In fact, since the 1930s, the Military students of the School of Health in Costa San Giorgio in Florence, when it was time to say goodbye, they attached the lock to their locker in an iron bar beyond the parapet of the Ponte Vecchio. In the same period, the same custom was practiced by the students of the Alpine barracks of Brunico and Bressanone, in Trentino Alto Adige: we are thus starting to see more and more padlocks attached to bridgesand the habit took hold as a symbol of the conclusion of a journey, and as an expression of fortitude and loyalty.
Subsequently, in our country, the custom of attaching love padlocks to bridges was made famous by the film “I want you” – released in 2007 – based on the novel by Federico Moccia, in which the two protagonists attach a padlock to Ponte Milvio in Rome with the intention “of never leaving each other”. The film, a sequel to the already famous “Three Meters Above the Sky”, was a phenomenon in mass culture, and the gesture of the padlocks was quickly emulated by thousands of peopleand began to spread rapidly from Rome to many other locations in Italy and around the world. Today it is a gesture made especially by tourists, e.g there is no shortage of protests and bans from citizens and administrations and of those who take care of the safety of the bridges themselves, often suffering due to the weight of the iron.
