The history of the lovelock tradition is a little sketchy. It did not become widespread until the 21 st century, and it was a hugely popular Italian teenage romance novel that made it popular. In Federico Moccia's bestseller Ho Voglia di Te (I Want You), published in 2006, two teenagers ‘lock their love’ by attaching a padlock to the Milvio Bridge in Rome. Within the space of a few months, fans of the novel had copied the custom, and it spread across Rome – then across Italy – and then across the world. The power of popular culture and social media!

However, there is an earlier example of a lovelock structure. Beside the cathedral in Pécs, Hungary, is a fence covered in padlocks. These have been there since the 1980s, possibly as part of the Punk subculture – padlocks being a symbol of Sid Vicious. So these lovelocks had a very different meaning to the ones today.

Padlocks do have a long history of being used as love charms and protective amulets. For example, in northern Russia, young women would lock a padlock and place the key under their pillow or wear it close to the heart as part of a divination ritual. Their future groom would then appear to them in a dream and ask them for the key. While at Slavic weddings, an unlocked padlock and key would be placed on or under the threshold when the newly-weds stepped over it; following this, the padlock would be locked and retained in the home, while the key was often thrown into a well or a river.

There are many other examples from history in cultures across the world. There are some popular stories that propose origins for the lovelock custom. Although there’s no historical evidence for them, they are interesting examples of folklore.