Love Locks

One of the photos that I'll be sharing from the trip is of the small shrine to St. John of Nepomuk which resides, among many other statues and such, on the Charles Bridge in Prague. I don't want to poach someone else's Flickr photo so I'll just post a link for reference. Unlike in this photo, my photo shows a number of padlocks attached to the ironwork. For some reason I thought I'd remembered reading something about their significance but my mind wasn't cooperating. After seeing the photos again last night I did some online research only to discover that these padlocks are "love locks" or "love padlocks" as they are sometimes called. And in Prague this isn't the only place they exist. A small bridge that we didn't wander over (pictured left from Wikimedia Commons) but ended up in the background of one of my photos has railings covered with locks. Apparently this is happening all over Europe now and other places in the world as well. People, whether because they truly believe, or because they feel it is a novel concept, are placing padlocks with their names or initials written on them to signify their everlasting love. Wikipedia actually has an entry on the subject that details some of the stories from which this phenomenon has sprung out of.

So this might surprise you given how much of a ridiculous sap I am. I don't necessarily think this is a good practice. I definitely share some of the same concerns that mutliple jurisdictions do, regarding how the presence of these locks will affect the integrity of some of the centuries old structures they are being locked to (Ponte Vecchio in Florence for example). I love the sentiment and I think it is an amazing symbol and in some places the presence of hundreds and hundreds of these locks have created an interesting visual, but in the end I wonder about the damage it could do long term. I suppose a strong set of cutters would make short work of most of these (picture right also from Wikimedia Commons) but apparently in some places they just continually appear. It does make me feel good that there is so much love in the world and I suppose these are better than graffiti.

So there you have it. My adult, sensible side, for once, is winning over my romantic sap side. I'm not sure how I feel about that...