Stop stealing the cobblestones, you heathens!

Well obviously it's none of our super-light packers picking these up and taking them back home !!

Those of us who still check bags remain suspect however.

My guess is few, if any, of the cobblestones are medieval. Like anything, they need to be replaced from time to time.

Edited: what I was thinking when I responded didn’t come out the way I meant it. What I meant was that those stealing the stones are probably not getting what they think they’re stealing.

After watching cobbled streets being installed on numerous trips to Europe, it’s hard work and expensive since it’s labor intensive. Definitely a tripping hazard when one cobble is missing. There is no reason to take one for a souvenir.

I have no tolerance for such behavior from visitors. Saw this in other constellations at other places.

jaimeelsabio, and when they replaced them, the pavers. If it was a dirt road to begin with, they replaced them with a type of stone paver that did not exist before the mid-19th century. Or at least that's what I see looking in pictures.

Still, the idea of stealing and vandalism is beyond my comprehension.

My guess is few, if any, of the cobblestones are medieval.

They may be older than you think. Cobblestones last forever, and thus they are constantly being recycled. However, not a lot you see in Brugge is actually medieval. A lot is just 19th century neogothic...

I have to ask what people do with such a cobblestone when they return home? Put it on the mantle? Do people even have mantles anymore?
Maybe just another brick in the wall.

I remember my first European adventure in 2014 and we were in Rome and I was fascinated by all the loose Roman ruins laying around. I enthusiastically made the comment to my wife that it would be great just to pick some pieces up and bring them home. Not serious of course. The next day at our Forum tour our guide let us know that we may see a lot of ruins scattered about the city, but you couldn't take them. Maybe she read my mind, or maybe I'm not the first to think about it.

When Parisians do this it means it’s time for another revolution. Aux barricades! But that doesn’t appear to be what’s going on in Bruges. Perhaps rather than just be criticized by local politician Franky Demon (which I suppose means they have been demonized), violators should be stoned.

Buried in the article is this common theme popular at CNN.

"Like Venice, Barcelona and other historic European cities, Bruges has been struggling to cope with overtourism."

It seems Venice, Barcelona and other historic European cities will be getting what they have asked for these past couple of years. Travel to Europe is predicted to be less. So, how long will it be before these cities begin to whine about tourism levels being down and how it is affecting the local economy? With tourism numbers declining will CNN and others who coined the overtourism word now coin another word of "undertourism"?

Time for Bruges/Brugge to impose some sort of punishment for the offenders. Hopefully not the same flaying alive punishment depicted in the disturbing 1498 painting by Gerard David that hangs in Brugge’s Groeninge Museum.
A hefty fine should suffice.

I'm just trying to picture someone digging up a cobblestone. From the best I can recollect that would not be easy or fast to do.

...and the award for best topic title goes to.... GREGBRADY!!

Simply 'stealing' things on vacation is a kind of sport I guess for some people. I mean, the typical hotel towels... but cobblestones??

Although, a member of my family used to bring plants back from every vacation. Not ones that were bought, but mostly they were simply dug out of the ground. When we used to vacation together (long time ago), I would have always wanted to hide when that happened :-) So embarrassing. Especially since hardly any of those plants survived the German climate.

The cobblestones that pushed my button were the ones made from chert (flint) in Rouen. I can't imagine wanting one so bad I'd dig it out, but that's a unusual rock for such uses. Very slippery when wet.

How do they know tourists are taking them? Maybe there is a beautiful garden patio in a Bruges suburb paved with cobblestones...

Maybe we've been in too much haste to reject this novel idea.

Dig up a cobble, plant a flower in its place.

Take a towel, leave a rose or a piece of candy.

Remove a piece of the Coliseum, leave a thank you note with some perfume on it.

I'm envisioning a Monty Python skit where a city is gradually removed until it's completely gone.

Maybe there is a beautiful garden patio in a Bruges suburb paved with cobblestones...

The stones themselves are cheap, but the taxpayer costs to repair the roads are not.

I know the dark cobblestones installed in the Frankfurt new Alt Stadt came from Viet Nam. A lot cheaper than from anywhere in Europe.

In Kaiserslautern (Germany) four memorial stumbling stones were stolen recently - these are metal-made cobblestone-form memorials which remember in pavements of people who were once persecuted and murdered by the National Socialists. Such cases were also reported this year in Magdeburg, Lünen, Menden, Zeitz, Gotha, Cottbus, Weimar and Forst in Lusatia.

I consider this to be a serious and despicable crime, as there is much more at stake here than the value of the stolen item.

Full article in German language. I recommend using DeepL for best translation from / to German.

MarkK, This isn’t about warped souvineer hunting this is something else. This has been going on in Germany almost since the day they were first laid. Nothing new, but a sad reflection on a segment of society. Disgusting. Choose any month any year and more of the same.

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/03/29/europe/germany-holocaust-stumbling-stones-far-right-intl
https://www.dw.com/en/holocaust-victims-memorial-stones-stolen-in-german-town/a-70440162

To Ms. Jo's point .... sort of.

Medieval streets were mostly dirt. Where stones were used, cobble stones generally looked like this: https://img.freepik.com/premium-photo/cobblestone-wall-medieval-castle-texture-stone-old-masonry_659987-12508.jpg

But what you will find today in most medieval tourist centers is more like this. This on the other hand is a modern invention using machine cut stone: https://hsnsouthafrica.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/cobblestone-11.jpg

Much of what we see is fanciful recreation. But I enjoy it.

Stealing stumbling stones is sad and the reason too as Mr Ë already remarks.

Living within an hour driving from Bruges the local newspapers have as far as I know nothing reported about theft of cobblestones. And that an international news network like CNN pays attention to this is a bit remarkable. Wouldn’t be surprised that a local newspaper will point to this article of CNN the coming days.

Maybe we still live under cobblestones here and have noticed nothing, but someone else does. If you still plan digging up one and discover a local underneath leave at least him or her alone. Thank you in advance.

The Stolperstein belong on a thread of their own as they don't have anything to do with cobblestones. Stealing them is a completely different sort of theft too.

Ms Jo, you are correct.

"I'm envisioning a Monty Python skit where a city is gradually removed until it's completely gone. "

And I'm envisioning a "Ship of Theseus" City

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus

[snip]
The Ship of Theseus, also known as Theseus's Paradox, is a paradox and a common thought experiment about whether an object is the same object after having all of its original components replaced over time, typically one after the other.

edit: yours is funnier