Boot Scrapers

I started noticing some strange-looking metal things near some doors in Lviv. I didn’t know what they were until I visited Przemyśl, Poland, last summer, and my friend Sarah told me what they were.

Boot scrapers in cities hark back to a time when urban roads were dirt. Thus the bottoms of people’s boots became very muddy and filthy. Solution – place metal boot scrapers near front doors of buildings so people can clean their boots before entering.

Boot scrapers have become (for the most part) obsolete as roads have been paved.

There are many different kinds of boot scrapers, but in Lviv I’ve only found free-standing boot scrapers, which are usually located just to the side of front doors of buildings. But I have also come across a few that are located right inside the main door to a building.

For some reason I really love boot scrapers!

This was the first "strange-looking metal thing" I ever noticed.

In front of a house

Outside the Latin Cathedral (interesting example because there is also a handle, which I assume is to be used while scraping)

This one is located inside the front door of an apartment building.

I'm not entirely sure what this is, but it seems possible that it is a bootscraper.