The Freedom Monument (Brīvības piemineklis): Milda and the Three Stars

The monument, the park around it, and the Laima clock two minutes south — click any image for the full-size view.

Short answer, what the Freedom Monument is

The Freedom Monument (in Latvian, Brīvības piemineklis) is the 42-metre limestone-and-granite column at the eastern edge of Riga’s Old Town, where Brīvības iela crosses the canal that used to be the medieval city moat. On top of it stands a copper figure of a woman with three gold-plated stars raised above her head. Latvians call her Milda. The three stars are the three historic regions of Latvia — Vidzeme, Latgale, and Kurzeme. The inscription on the base, in Latvian, reads Tēvzemei un Brīvībai: ‘For Fatherland and Freedom’.

It was built between 1931 and 1935 by the Latvian sculptor Kārlis Zāle, paid for entirely by public donations during Latvia’s first period of independence (1918–1940), survived fifty years of Soviet occupation, and is today the centre of Latvian civic and political life. Every state ceremony, every protest, every quiet flower-laying on a grandparent’s name day happens here. It is, simply, the most loaded sculpture in the country.

For visitors: free, open 24/7, two minutes’ walk from the eastern edge of the Old Town. Honour Guard ceremonies during the day in summer. Five minutes is enough to look; longer if you want to read what’s on the base.

A short history, because it matters

Latvia became independent for the first time on 18 November 1918, in the chaos at the end of the First World War. The young republic spent its first decade rebuilding a country (agrarian, broke, just out of the Russian Empire and the German occupations), and by the late 1920s was ready to think about how it wanted to commemorate its existence.

A national competition was held. The winning design came from Kārlis Zāle, then in his thirties, working in a stripped-classical style influenced by his time studying in Berlin. Construction began in 1931. Funded entirely by public donations from a country with a population of under two million, building took four years. The monument was unveiled on 18 November 1935, the seventeenth anniversary of independence.

It cost about 3.6 million lats (serious money for a small country), and the donor list included people who gave a single lat from a pension. That detail matters. By the time it went up, the monument was already understood as something belonging to ordinary Latvians, not to a regime.

Milda, and what the three stars mean

The woman at the top is universally called Milda in Latvia, though the name doesn’t come from any official inscription. She’s ‘Milda’ the way the Statue of Liberty is ‘Lady Liberty’. The figure represents Latvia itself; the three stars she holds are the three historic regions:

• Vidzeme, the central region around Riga. Historically Livonia, formerly under Swedish then Russian rule.
• Latgale, the eastern region. Historically Catholic, longest under Polish-Lithuanian rule, and the only Latvian region with a distinct dialect still in everyday use.
• Kurzeme, the western region, the old Duchy of Courland. The part of Latvia that briefly had its own colony in Tobago in the 17th century.

The inclusion of all three regions in one figure is part of what makes the monument do its political work. Latvia in 1935 was still a young federation of pieces that had only recently been on different sides of different empires. Showing them as one figure with three stars was a quiet argument that the country was now whole.

The base of the column, below Milda, has 56 sculptural reliefs covering the history of the Latvian people: scenes from medieval resistance, from the 19th-century national awakening, from the 1905 revolution, from the 1918 independence struggle. The ones at the back, on the side facing the Old Town, are worth a slow look. The ones at the front are the ones photographs catch.

How it survived the Soviet occupation

This is the part of the story that almost every Latvian will eventually mention, so I’ll tell it the way I tell it on tours.

In June 1940, Latvia was occupied by the Soviet Union. Within months, the new regime was holding parades on this square. The first Soviet plan was to demolish the Freedom Monument and replace it with a statue of Stalin facing the other way. The famous Russian sculptor Vera Mukhina (who had Latvian roots) intervened, arguing that the monument was an artistic masterpiece and should be preserved. The plan was shelved.

Throughout fifty years of Soviet occupation, leaving flowers at the monument was forbidden. The KGB watched the square. Ordinary Latvians did it anyway, especially on 18 November (the suppressed independence day), often disguising the visit as a stop on a longer walk. People were arrested. Many people. The monument stood the entire time, weathered and uncleaned but never demolished. Its survival became part of the meaning.

On 23 August 1989, two million people across Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia held hands in a human chain from Tallinn to Vilnius (the Baltic Way), protesting the 50th anniversary of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact that had handed all three countries to the Soviet Union. The chain ran through Riga, past this monument. Independence followed in 1991. On the morning the Soviet flag came down, the monument was where the city gathered. It hasn’t stopped being that.

The monument today

If you’re here in summer, you’ll catch the Honour Guard. Two soldiers from the Latvian National Armed Forces stand watch at the monument, ceremonially relieved every hour by a small marching detail. The ceremony runs through the warm months, daily, from morning to early evening. It’s small, quiet, and serious. Latvians around you will go quiet for the minute or so the changeover takes.

If you’re here on 18 November (Independence Day) you’ll see the city’s major civic ceremony, with flowers laid by the President and by ordinary families. On 4 May (Restoration of Independence Day, 1990) you’ll see the same. On 14 June (the day Latvians remember the 1941 Soviet deportations) and 25 March (the 1949 deportations) you’ll see flowers and candles.

Day-to-day, it’s the place couples meet before dinner and the place tourists pause to read what the inscription says. Bastejkalns park behind it is a working park (the canal, the willows, the small bridge with the love-locks), and one of the prettiest five-minute walks in central Riga.

Practical answers

Where it is and getting there

At the junction of Brīvības iela and the Pilsētas Kanāls (the city canal), at the eastern edge of Riga’s Old Town. From Riga Cathedral, ten minutes’ walk east. From Riga Central Station, twelve minutes north. The closest tram stop is Brīvības Piemineklis, served by trams 3, 7, 9, 11. Bus 22 from the airport drops you a five-minute walk away.

Times to visit

Anytime. It’s a public square, free, never closed. The Honour Guard runs roughly 09:00–18:00 in summer, with the changeover ceremony on the hour. For atmosphere, early morning before the city wakes up gives you the best photographs (low sun on the limestone). For meaning, 18 November (Independence Day) and 4 May (Restoration of Independence) are the days the square fills with Latvians. On those evenings the monument is lit; on others, it isn’t especially.

Combining with the rest of the Old Town

The Freedom Monument is the eastern bookend of any Old Town walk. From here, you can drop south through the Old Town pillar route — the Powder Tower, the Three Brothers, the cathedral — or walk five minutes north into the Quiet Centre for the Art Nouveau district. Bastejkalns park immediately behind the monument is a soft place to sit for ten minutes between things.

My honest take

For visitors who don’t carry the history, the Freedom Monument can read as ‘a column with a statue on top’, and that’s the version that ends up on the postcard. That’s fine. But it’s also the most loaded place in Latvia. If you have ten minutes here, give a couple to reading the inscription, a couple to looking at the back side of the base where the Latvian-history reliefs are carved, and the rest to watching whatever Latvians around you happen to be doing — laying a single flower, standing for the Honour Guard changeover, walking past on a Tuesday.

Frequently asked questions about the Freedom Monument

Who is Milda?

The female figure on top of the Freedom Monument, holding three gold stars above her head. Latvians universally call her Milda. There’s no official inscription with that name. It’s simply how the country has referred to her since 1935. The figure is meant to represent Latvia itself; Milda is the affectionate, given name.

What do the three gold stars mean?

The three historic regions of Latvia — Vidzeme (centre, around Riga), Latgale (east), and Kurzeme (west). At the time of the monument’s unveiling in 1935, these three regions had only recently been brought under one Latvian state; the three stars assert that they are now one country. (Latvia today has four cultural regions if you count Zemgale, in the south; the monument predates that division.)

How tall is the Freedom Monument?

42 metres total. The travertine column itself is 19 metres; the base sculptures and pedestal add the rest. The Milda figure on top is nine metres of copper. From across the square, the monument feels taller than it is because it sits on a low rise without competing tall buildings nearby.

What does ‘Tēvzemei un Brīvībai’ mean?

Latvian: ‘For Fatherland and Freedom’. It’s the inscription carved on the base of the monument, on the side facing the Old Town. The phrase has become a Latvian national motto in everything but legal status.

How did the monument survive the Soviet occupation?

The Soviet authorities planned to demolish it after the 1940 occupation and replace it with a statue of Stalin. The Russian sculptor Vera Mukhina — herself born in what is now Latvia — argued for its preservation as an artistic masterpiece, and the demolition plan was shelved. Throughout the occupation, leaving flowers at the monument was forbidden, and many Latvians were arrested for doing so. The monument stood through fifty years of Soviet rule, weathered but intact, and became one of the most powerful symbols of national continuity through the occupation period.

Who designed and built the Freedom Monument?

The Latvian sculptor Kārlis Zāle (1888–1942), in collaboration with the architect Ernests Štālbergs. Construction ran from 1931 to 1935 and was funded entirely by public donations from across Latvia. Zāle is also the sculptor of the Brothers’ Cemetery (Brāļu kapi) on the northern edge of Riga, a different but equally significant Latvian memorial site.

Is there an Honour Guard at the Freedom Monument?

Yes. Soldiers from the Latvian National Armed Forces stand a ceremonial guard at the monument, with a hourly changeover ceremony, daily during the warmer months (roughly April through October) from about 09:00 to 18:00. In winter the schedule is reduced. The changeover is small, dignified, takes about a minute, and is one of the moments when Latvians around you will go quiet.

What’s the Laima clock?

A small ornamental clock pillar on Brīvības iela, two minutes south of the Freedom Monument, installed in 1924 by Laima — the Latvian chocolate company — originally as a workplace timepiece for the factory staff nearby. The rest of Riga adopted it as a meeting point. ‘Meet you at the Laima’ has been a city shorthand for a century. It is still a working meeting spot — on a Friday evening you’ll see twenty people stood around it waiting for friends.

What’s Bastejkalns park?

Bastejkalns is the small park that wraps around the canal directly behind the Freedom Monument. The hill (kalns) is a former medieval defensive bastion; the canal (Pilsētas Kanāls) is the old city moat, still curving around what used to be the Old Town walls. It’s a working city park — a five-minute walk along the canal, willows, a bridge with love-locks, occasional buskers, and a memorial to the five Latvians killed by Soviet OMON forces here in January 1991. A soft place to sit between heavier sights.

When are the Latvian national days I’ll see things happening here?

The big four. 18 November — Independence Day (anniversary of the 1918 declaration of statehood); state ceremony, flowers from the President, large evening procession. 4 May — Restoration of Independence Day (1990); similar ceremony. 14 June — commemoration of the 1941 Soviet mass deportations; flowers and candles, no parade. 25 March — commemoration of the 1949 deportations; same. On any of those days the square fills with Latvians and the meaning of the monument is impossible to miss.

Can I take photographs?

Yes, freely. Two practical notes. First, don’t pose for cheesy photographs during the Honour Guard changeover. Wait the minute it takes. Second, the climbing or sitting on the base of the monument is treated as a serious offence by the Latvian authorities, and rightly so. Stand on the cobbles around it, not on the monument itself.

Can wheelchairs and pushchairs reach the monument?

Yes. The monument sits on a flat stone-paved square with smooth approaches from Brīvības iela on both sides. The cobbles immediately around the base are tighter; the wider square has level paving. Bastejkalns park behind has paved paths and is wheelchair-accessible at most points; one bridge over the canal has a small step.

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Daiga Taurīte is a licensed Latvian tour guide and co-founder of Barefoot Baltic, which runs small-group day excursions from Riga. She grew up in Riga, spent two decades working in London, and came home in 2024. Barefoot Baltic is licensed by Latvia’s Consumer Rights Protection Centre (PTAC), holds ATD passenger transport licence PS-01995, and is insured by BTA Baltic for civil liability.

The Freedom Monument is on every walking route we run through Riga. If you’d like a half-day in the Old Town with a licensed Latvian guide who can connect the monument to the rest of the city’s 20th-century story, get in touch.