Around 2010 a new tradition started in Paris where lovers visiting the city felt the need to leave a symbol of their undying love by attaching a padlock with their names etched on to the metal railings of the 'Pont des Arts' bridge over the river Seine into which they then dropped the key.
The origins of the tradition are open to debate with many favouring the story of a woman in Hungary who had lost her lover during WW1 and started fixing padlocks to familiar places of their romantic rendezvous as a sign of her undying love. Other places such as Italy (Rome) and Germany (Cologne) may also have a claim,
The romantics among us may have found the idea endearing but the combined weight of all the padlocks meant that the bridge could not cope and its structural integrity was compromised, The city decided in 2015 that enough was enough and had the padlocks removed from the bridge and replaced the wire mesh panels with glass thus putting an end to the tradition.
Here are a couple of interesting links about their history:
Footnote:
More recently he city's 18th arrondissement had a similar problem to contend with on the railings in front of the Sacre Coeur.
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