World Art Utopia

Love Locks on the Hohenzollern Bridge

Engraved padlocks fastened to the railing of the Hohenzollern Bridge in Cologne, with Cologne Cathedral behind
Artwork FileCologne, Germany

Love Locks on the Hohenzollern Bridge

SeenMay 2025

Visitor-made · Cologne, Germany

Photo: BriYYZ from Toronto, Canada / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0); resized from the SAU archive.

Visitors fasten engraved padlocks (Liebesschlösser) to the footpath railings of Cologne’s Hohenzollern Bridge. Names, initials and dates turn the fence into a record of couples, friends and families; the custom spread there from about 2008. Source Source Reported

Seen May 2025. Evidence date: 2025-05-06. Dated reporting, not confirmation of present condition. Source Reported

💡 4 things to know

  1. A custom that grewThe regional heritage database KuLaDig (LVR) dates the spread of locks on the bridge to about 2008. Source Reported
  2. Not only couplesCologne Tourism notes locks for friendship and family as well as couples’ names. Source Reported
  3. Counts are estimatesPublished totals differ widely; KuLaDig cites an estimate from June 2015, which is not a current count. Source Reported
  4. Removal was droppedThe Cologne portal koeln.de says Deutsche Bahn, which owns the bridge, decided in 2018 to remove the locks and was later persuaded to leave them. Source Source Reported

📍 Where it is

Footpath railings of the Hohenzollernbrücke · Cologne, Germany Source Checked

Open in Maps

Map pin is approximate; use the named site or address to locate the subject.

🗓️ Sightings

  1. 20095 Jun

    Locks photographed by BriYYZ

  2. 2018

    DB removal decision, later dropped

  3. 20256 May

    Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger on the custom

Green stamps mark dated photographs; amber stamps mark records or reports; red stamps mark loss. Publication dates are not camera dates.

✅ The facts

Objects
Padlocks fastened to bridge railings Source Checked
Place
Footpaths of the Hohenzollernbrücke Source Checked
Started
About 2008 Source Reported
Markings
Names, initials and dates Source Checked
Number of locks
No verified current count; published estimates differ Source Source Conflicting

🔗 Related

All sources & image credits

Photo: BriYYZ from Toronto, Canada / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0); resized from the SAU archive.

Last checked: 26 October 2026 · How we verify art