Parque do Choupalinho - Coimbra, Portugal
Posted by: Torgut
N 40° 12.051 W 008° 25.716
29T E 548631 N 4450206
The padlocks are placed in a minor pedestrian bridge in a city park in Coimbra.
Waymark Code: WM13ER2
Location: Coimbra, Portugal
Date Posted: 11/25/2020
Views: 3
This minor unnamed bridge is located in Parque do Choupalinho, next to a well known pedestrian bridge named Pedro e Inês. There is a good reason for the choice of local: Pedro e Inês are the protagonists of a medieval forbidden love story, like Romeo and Juliet, only this one was real.
From Wikipedia:
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visit link)
"Inês was the natural daughter of Pedro Fernández de Castro, Lord of Lemos and Sarria, and his noble Portuguese mistress Aldonça Lourenço de Valadares. (...) Inês came to Portugal in 1340 as a maid of Constance of Castile, recently married to Peter, the heir apparent to the Portuguese throne. The prince fell in love with her and started to neglect his lawful wife, endangering the already feeble relations with Castile. Moreover, Peter's love for Inês brought the exiled Castilian nobility very close to power, with Inês's brothers becoming the prince's friends and trusted advisors. King Afonso IV of Portugal, Peter's father, disliked Inês's influence on his son and waited for their mutual infatuation to wear off, but it did not.
Constance of Castile died in 1345. Afonso IV tried several times to arrange for his son to be remarried, but Pedro refused to take a wife other than Inês, who was not deemed eligible to be queen. Peter's legitimate son, future King Ferdinand I of Portugal, was a frail child, whereas Peter and Inês's illegitimate children were thriving; this created even more discomfort among the Portuguese nobles, who feared the increasing Castilian influence over Peter. Afonso IV banished Inês from the court after Constance's death, but Peter remained with her declaring her as his true love. After several attempts to keep the lovers apart, Afonso IV ordered Inês's death. Pêro Coelho, Álvaro Gonçalves, and Diogo Lopes Pacheco went to the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha in Coimbra, where Inês was detained, and killed her, decapitating her in front of her small child. When Peter heard of this he sought out the killers and managed to capture two of them in 1361.He executed them publicly by ripping their hearts out, claiming they didn't have one after having pulverized his own heart."
There aren't that many padlocks here neither are them specially beautiful but still, nevertheless a love padlock location with an interesting story behind it.