Bridge of love
At the dawn of World War I, while the war was not even suspected yet, a schoolmistress Nada and a Serbian officer Relja started having deep feelings for each other. They fell in love indeed and made a commitment to each other. It was a love widely talked about, attracting the attention of all the people living at Vrnjačka Banja. But the war did break out with all the horrors it entails. Relja went off to war fought in Greece. He left never to return on account of a beautiful Greek woman he had fallen in love with and therefore broke up the engagement to Nada. The legend does not say anything about his further fate, whereas, on the other hand, every inhabitant of Vrnjačka Banja is familiar with Nada’s destiny. Overwhelmed with sorrow, she faded away day after day and finally died, young and miserable.
Upset by Nada’s destiny and wishing to keep their own romances, girls started writing down their names along with the names of their lovers on padlocks they bound to the railing of the bridge which used to be the favorite meeting place of Nada and Relja. Afterward, they symbolically threw keys into the river. New wars and sufferings came up. The story fell into oblivion, and the girls’ custom to ‘bind’ their love became uncustomary.
It had been the case until Desanka Maksimović, according to the stories of old residents of Vrnjačka Banja, while being on one of her numerous visits to Vrnjačka Banja, learned about the tragic story. Inspired by it, she wrote down one of her most beautiful love poems, ‘Prayer for Love.’ Although we tend to forget things, this story remains to be unforgotten; to preserve it, young couples kept on with the tradition of ‘binding’ their love – hence the bridge name ‘The Bridge of Love.’
