Those who fought and were killed in the Estonian War of Independence are buried here. The War of Independence started in November 1918 when Soviet Russia invaded the Republic of Estonia and ended on 2 February 1920 with the signing of the Tartu Peace Treaty. The monument was destroyed during the Soviet occupation. In 1987 the society Vaba Sõltumatu Noorte Kolonn Nr 1 (Free Independent Youth Fleet No. 1) started to clean up the graves of those who were killed in the War of Independence and the monument was reopened on 23 June 1988. In 2002 the city government of Võru started to renovate the burial ground. The monument erected by the Youth Fleet was torn down, but the slab and cross made by the fleet were used on the new monument.
The Cornflower (or Broken Cornflower) memorial to the victims of Stalinism was established in 1990 and its author is P. Saar.On top of the granite boulders is a broken cornflower (Estonian national flower). Black stripes run through the grey stone parquet of the square. They depict the railway tracks that symbolise deportation to Siberia. The waterworks of the monument make it possible for water to drip off the petals of the cornflower, like tears.The monument, which was initially erected on the corner of Riia and Pepleri streets in Tartu by the association of freedom fighters Memento, was reopened in its new spot at Pepleri 27. The monument is located next to the grey building. During the Soviet era, a KGB remand prison was located there, where the deportation of many Estonians to Siberia began.
The monument to Friedrich Robert Faehlmann – a bronze bust on a pillar of local grey granite – was opened in front of the Old Anatomical Theatre at Toomemägi, Tartu, on 18 May 1930. Friedrich Robert Faehlmann (1798 - 1850) was one of the founders of Estonian national literature, a physician and a democrat. He studied in Rakvere District School, Tartu Upper Secondary School and the Faculty of Medicine in the University of Tartu. Faehlmann worked as a physician in Tartu from 1824. He worked in the Old Anatomical Theatre. He was a lector of the Estonian language in the university and sometimes also gave lectures in pharmacology and prescriptions.
The monument to the legendary Estonian statesman and journalist Jaan Tõnisson was established in 1999. Its authors are Mati Karmin and Tiit Trummal. Jaan Tõnisson was a legendary statesman and journalist who was prime minister from 1919 to 1920, the head of state from 1927 to 1928 and in 1933, the owner of the Postimees newspaper from 1896 to 1930 and the editor-in-chief of the Postimees from 1896 to 1935. Tõnisson was made an honorary citizen of Tartu in 1939.
The long-serving professor of the University of Tartu was one of the brightest scientists in 20th century Tartu. Lotman studied the history of Russian literature and culture and general regularities of culture. He laid the foundation of cultural semiotics and was the founder of the Tartu-Moscow school of semiotics. The monument to the world-famous culturologist and semiotician, which consists of pipes, water and light, was opened on 6 October 2007. The idea for the sculpture made of 15 m of steel pipe is based on the self-portrait of Juri Lotman. Authors of the monument: Mati Karmin, architect Andres Lunge.
Karl Ernst von Baer was a biologist, the founder of descriptive and comparative embryology and an academician of the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences. He studied medicine in Tartu from 1810 to 1811 and obtained the degree of doctor of medicine here. He was a professor of zoology and anatomy in Königsberg from 1817. He studied anthropology, geography and ichthyology during his time in St Petersburg. He spent the last years of his life (1867-1876) in Tartu where he wrote his 3-volume collection of articles and speeches and participated in the activities of the Estonian Naturalists Society and was elected its president in 1869.The statue of Karl Ernst von Baer was completed in 1886, its author is M. Opeku.
Kalevipoeg is the Estonian national epic about the adventures of the hero called Kalevipoeg.In 1950, the memorial Kalevipoeg, which was dedicated to the soldiers who lost their lives in the War of Independence, was taken down by the occupying power. The monument was built by Amandus Adamson. In 1952, the monument to Kreutzwald, the Father of Song, was erected at the same location. Discussions over restoring the memorial Kalevipoeg were held since 1988, but in 2002, when the exhibition ‘Kalevipoeg in Sculpture’ took place, the restoration proptly started. Sculptor Ekke Väli modelled the momorial on the basis of photos, and he was consulted by Endel Taniloo, a senior sculptor, during the restoration of Kalevipoeg.
The monument to Peeter Siegfried Nikolaus Põld (1878–1930), the first Minister of Education and founder of the national university of Estonia, the first professor of pedagogy, was unveiled in front of the Ministry of Education and Research on 1 December 2008.The authors of the monument are sculptor Ekke Väli and architect Ain Rööpson.Under the name of Peeter Põld Day, student scientific conferences have been organised at the University of Tartu since 2008, and on the same day, the university issues a scholarship named after him.