WHAT ARE THE LOCKS OF LOVE ?! AND WHAT DO WE DO?
Why do people put padlocks (often referred to as love locks) on bridges, railings, and other public spaces? They probably believe the fairy tale to affirm their love that they will lock the lock and throw the key into the river. Even in Prague, so many foreigners and Czech tourists visit the center itself and close to Charles Bridge or click on their padlock of love.
Every Tuesday, administrators and members of the Association of Artists of the Charles Bridge come to remove the locks of love using grinders or scissors. The castles appear not only at the beginning of the Charles Bridge, but also on the grid of st. John of Nepomuk, where it is a monument and the chateau destroys it. Our organization ACL offered assistance to the Association of Artists of Charles Bridge in removing the locks because we are able to remove the locks non-destructively. Although it takes us longer than taking a grinder, the purpose was to train lockpicking in the field and not only at home, training or racing.
In the end, it didn’t matter that there wasn’t much on the grid. Maybe it was better. We had something to do with the railing, where there was no cold on hand and we did not have to worry that the tensioner will fall into the Vltava. As for opening, it was much harder than when one opened a lock in his hand. The problem was also with locks with a very small key hole, they need to be counted and have a lot of small turnbuckles. The locks were of different types, and interesting pieces were found. The pits were minimal, less than we expected, sometimes there was a disc. In total, we took 143 padlocks with a total weight of 15 kg.
Honza H. (our member): “The action was great, it could be repeated on a larger scale. The locks were surprising.“