The Freedom Square ("Vabaduse väljak") is the main square of Tallinn and also the site of the War of Independence Victory Column. The square has had several names during history. The five-meter monument to Peter the Great was erected there by the Russian empire in 1910 and the square was named after him. After the Estonian independence in 1922 the statue was melted and recycled and the square named as the Freedom Square.
About 20 years later, in 1944, the Soviet Union occupied Estonia and in a few years after the area was named as Victory Square. After the Estonia's new independence, the name was restored once again to Freedom Square.
The square is bounded on the east by St. John's Church (built 1862-67), on the south by Kaarli Boulevard and an underground shopping center (2008–09), and on the west by aVictory Column (2009) commemorating the Estonian War of Independence 1918–1920.
The Square has quickly become a meeting place due to its location right next to the Old Town and Toompea (the Cathedral Hill). The majority of the underground pedestrian zone is under the AHHAA Science Centre, Youth Information Point, an exhibition of the history of the Square and archaeological finds.
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Střekov Castle (Schreckenstein) is perched atop a cliff above the River Elbe, near the city of Ústí nad Labem. It was built in 1316 for John of Luxembourg, the father of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, to guard an important trade route to Germany. After changing hands several times, the castle was acquired by the Lobkowicz family in 1563. Its strategic importance led to occupations by Imperial Habsburg, Saxon, and Swedish forces during the Thirty Years' War, as well as successive sieges by Austrian and Prussian armies during the Seven Years' War.
Although Střekov Castle was heavily damaged during those conflicts and abandoned as a military installation by the end of the 18th century, the 1800s saw many poets and artists visiting the castle, drawn by a new trend of interest in romantic ruins.