The Wroclaw bridge of love

Tumski Bridge is the Wroclaw bridge of love.

It’s a steel bridge over the north branch of the Odra river, at the entrance of Cathedral Island. At night its structure is illuminated by powerful spotlights. The view is impressive, with the spires of the cathedral behind. Walking on the bridge at night is even more impressive: the gas lamps from over a hundred years ago are still in operation. You can meet the gaslighter either at dusk or dawn, if you’re lucky enough.

Here lovers promise each other eternal love.

Love padlocks

As a mark of their promise, they lock a padlock with their names and the date at the bridge’s fence.   An important part of the ceremony is throwing the key into the river. Once the key is sunk, there is theoretically no way to open the padlock!

Theoretically…..

You can find hundreds of padlocks here, with names, dates, and short messages.

On one side of Wroclaw’s bridge of love, you can also find a tiny stall. Here padlocks are sold. Lovers have also a place where to sit comfortably and write their best words before locking the padlock!

It happens almost in every town in Europe, but it’s the first time that I’ve seen this romantic ritual used for commercial purposes!

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