Designed by Oberlin College graduate and prominent architect Herk Visnapuu, the Estonian Cultural Garden features an abstract sculpture with an inscribed flame at its center. Sculptor Clarence E. VanDuzer designed the flame, unveiled in 1996.
Built while Estonia was under Soviet occupation, the garden is often seen as a symbol of Estonia’s enduring push for freedom. The monument includes an inscription from Kalevipoeg, an epic poem by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald (1803–1882), written in the 1850s and published in 1861: “But the time will come when all torches will burst into flame at both ends.”