Freedom Monument The Freedom Monument ( ) is a memorial located in Riga , Latvia , honouring soldiers killed during the Latvian War of Independence ( 1918 – 1920 ) . It is considered an important symbol of the freedom , independence , and sovereignty of Latvia . Unveiled in 1935 , the high monument of granite , travertine , and copper often serves as the focal point of public gatherings and official ceremonies in Riga . The sculptures and bas - relief s of the monument , arranged in thirteen groups , depict Latvian culture and history . The core of the monument is composed of tetragonal shapes on top of each other , decreasing in size towards the top , completed by a high travertine column bearing the copper figure of Liberty lifting three gilded stars . The concept for the monument first emerged in the early 1920s when the Latvian Prime Minister , Zigfrīds Anna Meierovics , ordered rules to be drawn up for a contest for designs of a " memorial column " . After several contests the monument was finally built at the beginning of the 1930s according to the scheme " Shine like a star ! " submitted by Latvian sculptor Kārlis Zāle . Construction works were financed by private donations . Following Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940 Latvia was annexed by the Soviet Union and the Freedom Monument was considered for demolition , but no such move was carried out . Soviet sculptor Vera Mukhina is sometimes credited for rescuing the monument , because she considered it to be of the high artistic value . Soviet propaganda attempted to alter the symbolic meaning of the monument to better fit with Communist ideology , but it remained a symbol of national independence to the general public . Indeed , on June 14 , 1987 about 5 , 000 people gathered at the monument to commemorate the victims of the Soviet regime and to lay flowers . This rally renewed the national independence movement , which culminated three years later in the re - establishment of Latvian sovereignty after the fall of the Soviet regime . Design . The sculptures and bas - relief s of the Freedom Monument , arranged in thirteen groups , depict Latvian culture and history . The core of the monument is composed of tetragonal shapes on top of each other , decreasing in size towards the top . A red granite staircase of ten steps , in height , winds around the base of the monument between two travertine reliefs high and wide , " Latvian riflemen " ( 13 ; ) and " Latvian people : the Singers " ( 14 ; ) , which decorate its thick sides . Two additional steps form a round platform , which is in diameter , on which the whole monument stands . At the front of the monument this platform forms a rectangle , which is used for ceremonial proposes . The base of the monument , also made of red granite , is formed by two rectangular blocks : the lower one is a monolithic high , wide and long , while the smaller upper block is high , wide and long and has round niches in its corners , each containing a sculptural group of three figures . Its sides are also paneled with travertine . On the front of the monument , in between the groups " Work " ( 10 ; depicting a fisherman , a craftsman and a farmer , who stands in the middle holding a scythe decorated with oak leaves and acorns to symbolize strength and manhood ) and " Guards of the Fatherland " ( 9 ; depicting an ancient Latvian warrior standing between two kneeling modern soldiers ) , a dedication by the Latvian writer Kārlis Skalbe is inscribed on one of the travertine panels : " For Fatherland and Freedom " ( 6 ; ) . On the sides the travertine panels bear two reliefs : " 1905 " ( 7 ; in reference to the Russian Revolution of 1905 ) , and " The Battle against the Bermontians on the Iron Bridge " ( 8 ; , referring to the decisive battle in Riga during the Latvian War of Independence ) . On the back of the monument are another two sculptural groups : " Family " ( 12 ; ) ( a mother standing between her two children ) and " Scholars " ( 11 ; ) . On the red granite base there is yet another rectangular block , high and wide , and long , encircled by four 5 . 5 – 6 meters ( 18 – 20 ft ) high gray granite sculptural groups : " Latvia " ( 2 ; ) , " Lāčplēsis " ( 3 ; , an epic Latvian folk hero ) , " Vaidelotis " ( 5 ; a Baltic pagan priest ) and " Chain breakers " ( 4 ; ) ( three chained men trying to break free from their chains ) . The topmost block serves also as the foundation for the high monolithic travertine column , which is by at the base . To the front and rear a line of glass runs along the middle of the column . The column is topped by a copper figure of Liberty ( 1 ) , which is tall and in the form of a woman lifting three gilded stars , symbolizing the constitutional districts of Latvia : Vidzeme , Latgale and Courland . The whole monument is built around a frame of reinforced concrete and was originally fastened together with lead , bronze cables and lime mortar . However , some of the original materials were replaced with polyurethane filler during restoration . There is a room inside the Monument , accessed through a door in its rear side , which contains a staircase leading upwards in the Monument that is used for electrical installation and to provide access to the sewerage . The room cannot be accessed by the public and is used mainly as storage , however it has been proposed that the room could be redesigned forming a small exhibition , which would be used to introduce foreign officials visiting Latvia with the history of the Monument after the flower - laying ceremony . Location . The monument is located in the center of Riga on Brīvības bulvāris ( ) , near the old town of Riga . In 1990 a section of the street around the monument , about long , between Rainis and Aspazija boulevards , was pedestrianized , forming a plaza . Part of it includes a bridge over the city ' s canal , once a part of the city ' s fortification system , which was demolished in the 19th century to build the modern boulevard district . The canal is long and surrounded by parkland for half of its length . The earth from the demolition of the fortifications was gathered in the park and now forms an artificial hill with a cascade of waterfalls to the north of the monument . The Boulevard district east of the park is the location of several embassies and institutions , of which the closest to the Freedom Monument are the German and French embassies , the University of Latvia and Riga State Gymnasium No . 1 . Situated in the park near the monument to the south is the National Opera House with a flower garden and a fountain in front of it . Opposite the opera house on the western part of plaza near the old town , is a small café and the Laima clock . The clock was set up in 1924 , and in 1936 it was decorated with an advertisement for the Latvian confectionery brand " Laima " , from which it took its name ; it is a popular meeting spot . Originally it was planned that an elliptical plaza would be built around the foot of the monument , enclosed by a granite wall high , with benches placed inside it , while a hedge of thuja s was to be planted around the outside . This project was however not carried out in the 1930s . The idea was reconsidered in the 1980s but shelved again . Construction . The idea of building a memorial to honor soldiers killed in action during the Latvian War of Independence first emerged in the early 1920s . On July 27 , 1922 , the Prime Minister of Latvia , Zigfrīds Anna Meierovics , ordered rules to be drawn up for a contest for designs of a " memorial column " . The winner of this contest was a scheme proposing a column tall with reliefs of the official symbols of Latvia and bas - relief s of Krišjānis Barons and Atis Kronvalds . It was later rejected after a protest from 57 artists . In October 1923 , a new contest was announced , using for the first time the term " Freedom Monument " . The contest ended with two winners , and a new closed contest was announced in March 1925 , but , due to disagreement within the jury , there was no result . Finally in October 1929 , the last contest was announced . The winner was the design " Shine like a star ! " ( ) by sculptor Kārlis Zāle , who had had success in the previous contests as well . After minor corrections made by the author and supervising architect Ernests Štālbergs , construction began on November 18 , 1931 . Financed by private donations , the monument was erected by the entrance to the old town , in the same place where the previous central monument of Riga , a bronze equestrian statue of the Russian Emperor Peter the Great , had stood . It was calculated in 1935 , the year when the monument was unveiled , that in four years of construction 308 , 000 man - hours were required to work the stone materials alone : 130 years would have been required if one person were to carry out the work using the most advanced equipment of the time . The total weight of materials used was about 2 , 500 tons : such a quantity of materials would have required about 200 freight cars if transported by railway . Restoration . The monument is endangered by the climate ( which has caused damage by frost and rain ) and by air pollution . Although in 1990 the area around the monument was pedestrianized , there are still three streets carrying traffic around it . High concentrations of nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide have been recorded near the monument , which in combination with water cause corrosion of the fabric of the monument . In addition , water has caused cracking of the reinforced concrete core and rusting of its steel reinforcements and the fastenings of the monument , which also have been worn out by constant vibrations caused by traffic . The porous travertine has gradually crumbled over time and its pores have filled with soot and particles of sand , causing it to blacken and providing a habitat for small organisms , such as moss and lichen s . Irregular maintenance and the unskillful performance of restoration work have also contributed to the weathering of the monument . To prevent its further decay some of the fastenings were replaced with polyurethane filler and water repellent was applied to the monument during the restoration in 2001 . It was also determined that maintenance should be carried out every 2 years . The monument was restored twice during the Soviet era ( 1962 and 1980 – 1981 ) . In keeping with tradition the restorations and maintenance after the renewal of Latvia ' s independence are financed partly by private donations . The monument underwent major restoration in 1998 – 2001 . During this restoration the statue of Liberty and its stars were cleaned , restored and gilded anew . The monument was formally re - opened on July 24 , 2001 . The staircase , column , base and inside of the monument were restored , and the stone materials were cleaned and re - sealed . The supports of the monument were fixed to prevent subsidence . Although the restorers said at the time that the monument would withstand a hundred years without another major restoration , it was discovered a few years later that the gilding of the stars was damaged , due to the restoration technique used . The stars were restored again during maintenance and restoration in 2006 ; however , this restoration was rushed and there is no warranty of its quality . Guard of Honor . The guard of honor was present from the unveiling of the monument until 1940 , when it was removed shortly after the occupation of Latvia . It was renewed on November 11 , 1992 . The guards are soldiers of The Company of Guard of Honor of the Headquarters Battalion of the National Armed Forces ( ) . The guard is not required to be on duty in bad weather conditions and if the temperatures are below or above . The guards work in two weekly shifts , with three or four pairs of guards taking over from each other hourly in a ceremony commanded by the chief of the guard . Besides them there also are two watchmen in each shift , who look out for the safety of the guards of honor . Normally the guard changes every hour between 9 a . m . and 6 p . m . After an hour on watch the guards have two hours free that they spend in their rooms at the Ministry of Defence . Since September 2004 the guards also patrol every half hour during their watch : they march off from the base of the monument and march twice along each side of it and then return to their posts . The guards are required to be tall and in good health , as they are required to stand without moving for half an hour . Political significance . After the end of World War II , there were plans to demolish the monument , although little written evidence is available to historians and research is largely based on verbal testimony . On September 29 , 1949 ( although according to verbal testimony , the issue was first raised as early as October 1944 ) the Council of People ' s Commissars of the Latvian SSR proposed the restoration of the statue of the Russian Emperor Peter the Great . While they did not expressly call for the demolition of the Freedom Monument , the only way to restore the statue to its original position would have been to tear down the monument . The result of the debate is unrecorded , but since the monument still stands the proposition was presumably rejected . The Soviet sculptor Vera Mukhina ( 1889 – 1953 ; designer of the monumental sculpture " Worker and Kolkhoz Woman " ) is sometimes credited with the rescue of the monument , although there is no written evidence to support the fact . According to her son , she took part in a meeting where the fate of the monument was discussed , at which her opinion , as reported by her son , was that the monument was of very high artistic value and that its demolition might hurt the most sacred feelings of the Latvian people . The Freedom Monument remained , but its symbolism was reinterpreted . The three stars were said to stand for the newly created Baltic Soviet Republics – Estonian SSR , Latvian SSR , and Lithuanian SSR – held aloft by Mother Russia and the monument was said to have been erected after World War II as a sign of popular gratitude toward the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin for the liberation of the Baltic States . In the middle of 1963 , when the issue of demolition was raised again , it was decided that the destruction of a structure of such artistic and historic value , the building of which had been funded by donations of the residents of Latvia , would only cause deep indignation , which in turn would cause tension in society . Over time the misinterpretation of symbolism also was toned down and by 1988 the monument was said , with somewhat more accuracy , to have been built to " " celebrate the liberation from bondage of the autocracy of the tsar and German barons " " , although withholding the fact that the Bolshevik Red Army and the Red Latvian Riflemen were also adversaries in the Latvian War of Independence . Despite the Soviet government ' s efforts , on June 14 , 1987 , about 5 , 000 people rallied to commemorate the victims of Soviet deportations . This event , organized by the human rights group Helsinki - 86 , was the first time after the Soviet occupation that the flower - laying ceremony took place , as the practice was banned by the Soviet authorities . In response the Soviet government organized a bicycle race at the monument at the time when the ceremony was planned to take place . Helsinki - 86 organized another flower - laying ceremony on August 23 in the same year to commemorate the anniversary of the Molotov - Ribbentrop Pact , at which the crowd was dispersed using jets of water . Yet the independence movement grew in size , amounting in some events to more than half a million participants ( about one quarter of Latvia ' s population ) and three years later , on May 4 , 1990 , the re - establishment of the independence of Latvia was declared . Since the re - establishment of independence the monument has become a focal point for a variety of events . One of these – on March 16 , the commemoration day of veterans of the Latvian Legion of the Waffen - SS , who fought the Soviet Union during World War II – has caused controversy . The date was first celebrated by Latvians in exile before being brought to Latvia in 1990 and for a short time ( 1998 – 2000 ) was the official remembrance day . In 1998 the event drew the attention of the foreign mass media and in the following year the Russian government condemned the event as a glorification of Nazism . The event evolved into a political conflict between Latvians and Russians , posing a threat to public safety . The Latvian government took a number of steps in order to try to bring the situation under control , and in 2006 not only were the events planned by right wing organizations not approved , but the monument was fenced off , according to an announcement by Riga city council , for restoration . The monument was indeed restored in 2006 , but this statement was later questioned , as politicians named various other reasons for the change of date , the enclosed area was much larger than needed for restoration , and the weather appeared inappropriate for restoration work . Therefore the government was criticized by the Latvian press for being unable to ensure public safety and freedom of speech . The unapproved events took place despite the ban . On November 23 , 2006 , the law requiring the approval of the authorities for public gatherings was ruled unconstitutional . In the future years the government mobilized the police force to guard the neighborhood of the monument and the events were relatively peaceful .