Monument to the Estonian Mother

The year 1886 when the plan to build the Pihkva-Riga railway with a branch from Valga to Tartu became a crucial year in the development of the little town.The steam engine monument erected near the Valga railway station in 1998 celebrates the 110th anniversary of the Pihkva-Valga-Riga rail connection. Engine SU 251-98 was built in the Sormovo Shipyard in 1949. Interesting facts: * the engine weighs 87 tons and its output is 12 tons of steam per hour; * Riga-Pihkva railway was officially opened on 22 July 1889 in Pihkva.

In 1926, on the initiative of pastor Valter Viks, a memorial to the 200 citizens of Rõuge who were killed in the War of Independence, designed by artist Voldermar Mellik, was erected near the Rõuge Church. The Estonian text engraved in the stone on the front of the memorial reads "1918-1920. Honour the Fallen! Your thankful Rõuge parish". In 1945, the Bolsheviks blew up the memorial, and the bronze soldier and its foundation stones were buried in the ground near the monument. A local artist Aksel Ollmann dug the bronze statue out under the cover of night and hid it on his farm. In 1988, the statue was dug up from its hiding place. The memorial was re-inaugurated on 30 October 1988. The statue was restored by Ars Monumentaal.

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.

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 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 soldiers who fell in the War of Independence stands on a hill in front of Otepää Maarja Church and it is remarkable because it was hidden underground for 30 years. The monument was reopened in 1989 after renovation. The top part of the monument bears the words HONOUR THE FALLEN and a list of 22 names. The granite piece with the full list has been lost. The metal decorations were created at the initiative of sculptor Jüri Ojaver.Interesting facts: The initial monument was designed by Voldemar Melnik and made by stonemason Peeter Veeber. The monument was opened for the first time on 10 June 1928.

Opened in 1969, the Struve Monument is dedicated to the former director of the Tartu Observatory, Fr. G. W. Struve (15 April 1793 – 23 November 1864), a Russian astronomer and geodesist of German origin. Under his leadership, the meridian arc was measured between 1816 and 1855 to determine the shape and size of the globe.The monument is an abstract work, inspired by the spirit of its era, reflecting the pursuit of the human race into space. The lower part of the sculpture is a sundial and the upper part is an hourglass. The authors of the monument are Olav Männi and Udo Ivask.The Struve street and the geodetic arc are also dedicated to him in Tartu.

A monument to cold weather has been erected on the Piibe road on the outskirts of Jõgeva, where the lowest ever temperature in Estonia (-43.5*C) was recorded in 1940. The monument also highlights the most recent record of -37.6*C from 2003, also recorded in Jõgeva.