Love padlocks: from Serbia to Ponte Milvio

Fastening a padlock to the railing of a bridge and throwing the key into the river is one of the most recent and most debated love rituals. Unlike many wedding customs, it has no documented ancient roots: its mass spread dates from the last few decades, and it is one of the rare cases in which the birth and expansion of a popular tradition can be followed almost as it happens.

The Serbian legend of the Bridge of Love

The story most often cited as the origin comes from Serbia, from the spa town of Vrnjačka Banja. Here stands a small bridge called Most ljubavi, the «bridge of love». According to local tradition, shortly before the First World War a young schoolteacher named Nada fell in love with an officer, Relja, whom she used to meet on that very bridge. Having left for the front, the officer is said to have fallen for another woman, and Nada died of grief.

From then on, the story goes, local girls began writing their own names and those of their sweethearts on padlocks fixed to the railing, to protect their bond from a similar fate. The tale was made famous by a poem by the Serbian writer Desanka Maksimović. It is hard to say how old the story is in the form in which it is told today, but it remains the best-known example before the contemporary boom.

The Italian case of Ponte Milvio

In Italy the custom exploded after 2006, with Federico Moccia's novel Ho voglia di te and the film adapted from it the following year. In the story the protagonists attach a padlock to a lamppost on Ponte Milvio, in Rome, and throw the key into the Tiber. Within a few months thousands of couples imitated the gesture, to the point that the lamppost risked bending under the weight.

Ponte Milvio was no ordinary place. Built in the Republican era, it was the scene in 312 of the battle between Constantine and Maxentius, one of the decisive events of Roman history. The overlap between such an ancient monument and a custom born from a novel sparked lively debate, and in 2012 the City of Rome had the padlocks removed, moving the ritual to designated spaces.

Paris and the limits of a symbol

The most striking case is that of the Pont des Arts in Paris, a footbridge over the Seine opposite the Louvre. In the early 2000s padlocks covered the grilles entirely, and in June 2014 part of the parapet gave way under their weight. The following year the city removed dozens of tonnes of metal and replaced the grilles with transparent panels on which nothing could be hooked any longer.

Similar measures have been taken in Florence, on the Ponte Vecchio, in Venice and in other cities, both to protect monuments and because of the problems caused by keys thrown into rivers. Elsewhere, by contrast, local authorities have chosen to go along with the custom, providing dedicated structures. The ritual, in short, has quickly adapted to places and rules.

The history of love padlocks shows how a tradition can be born from a story, spread through popular fiction and cinema, and then find a balance with the protection of heritage. The symbol itself, after all, is very old: locking a bond and giving up the key means declaring it indissoluble, as the knots and rings of past ages did in their own way.