As certain as it is that the fifties had the best fashion, it is a known fact to anyone who knows me that I do like a bit of romance in my world. I’m not a girly girl (bar my lack of trouser ownership), but I love the idea of love. Simple. I like reading about ‘grande passions’, I like romantic movies and yes rose tinted glasses make me happy - so this morning I decided to pop them on whilst reading through the headlines. Now the headlines today began with a rather gloomy focus on the murdered father and his three children, the Olympics security (or lack of) and a Miami Cannibal – now I know that my boyfriend would much rather focus on the Cannibal option, but luckily I was alone on the train, leaving the story selection to my choice. Anyhoo, I digress, I came across a story about the padlocks on the Parisian bridges the Pont des Arts, Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor and the Pont de l'Archevêché.
You see, couples go to the bridges and lock a padlock to the railings or nearby tree, to signify their love or to make a wish. Although the story focused on Paris ( I mean, most romantic capital would edge the locational bets), it’s also happening in Rome and now even London. I think it stems from Fengyuan in Taiwan, where love padlocks are affixed to an overpass at the city's train station - these locks are known as "wish locks" and local legend holds that the magnetic field generated by trains passing underneath will cause energy to accumulate in the locks and fulfill the wishes. Now as much as I like the thought of magick, after a week of commuting via train to and from work, I am certainly not convinced that trains make your wishes come true. Especially when yesterday, the train was not only late, but also leaking.
Instead I decided to look for a more romantic story to attach to the notion. Rome had its own explanation saying that the ritual of affixing love padlocks to the bridge Ponte Milvio can be attributed to the book I Want You by Italian author Federico Moccia. Aha - now I was getting somewhere, an italian book called ‘I want you’ is more romantic than a taiwanese train, but as I have not read the book, I was still not satisfied…and then I found out about the Most Ljubavi. This bridge is in Serbia, and based on the padlocks appearing upon it is now called the ‘Bridge of Love’. Aha – this was a good start.
The story attached to the Serbian Padlocks go back to World War 2 – not the most romantic setting, but bear with me. There was a woman called Nada, and she fell in love with a Serbian officer named Relja. The couple got engaged, but then war broke out and Relja was posted to Greece, whilst in Greece he fell in love with another woman and broke off their engagement. The story says that Nada never got over the sadness and died of a broken heart. The young girls from her village of Vrnjacka Banja wanted to protect their hearts and began writing the names of their loved ones on padlocks and locked them onto the railings of the bridge where Nada and Relja used to meet.
So it turns out my romantic story, was not actually romantic – in fact it was tragically sad. I guess it makes the locks more poignant though – because life does change, and so do people, but, whether or not the ‘owners of the locks’ love lasts or not, is kind of irrelevant in my mind, it’s how they felt at that moment in time. You see, although I like to argue whether or not it’s better to have loved and lost than never loved at all, when you are in love and have your loved returned, well those moments make the markers of your life, and I like the idea of passers-by knowing that for that exact moment in time, the unity was unbreakable.
The couple in the modern day story, threw one key into the river under the bridge, and brought the other key with them home to the UK. The key is kept with their will for the story to live on. Now, this all seems a little far-fetched, as just like with the scrawling on the Abbey Road sign, it is a little naive (even for a romantic like me) to believe the lock will stay there. You see in Paris, Canada, Florence, Dublin and Germany the councils have already been working to remove the padlocks because they detract from the architecture…but in a weird twist of fate, I believe that by having them there, you are adding to the romance of the city – which is more than any naked bridge can hope to do alone.
There you have it, rose tinted glasses on a Tuesday morning. Oh and if you wish to read the full article about the love locks – here it is: www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2172901/The-lock-love-For-years-couples-world-left-padlocks-bridges-tokens-love-Now-Britons-unlocking-inner-passions-too.html
1. Oh and just in case said boyfriend ever stumbles across my blog – this is the cannibal story, for his own amusement: www.dailymail.co.uk/.../Revealed-Miami-cannibal-Rudy-Eugene-met-victim-horrifying-attack.html
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