Monument to the Liberators of Jelgava "Lāčplēsis"
Memorialinis vieta

Located in Jelgava, in the Station Park, opposite the Railway Station building.

The monument to the liberated people of Jelgava “Lāčplēsis” was opened on June 22, 1932, with the participation of the President of Latvia A.Kviesis, it was erected in honor of the liberation of Jelgava on November 21, 1919, during the Latvian War of Independence. In 1940, during the first period of the Soviet occupation, the monument was not affected by changes. In 1941, when the Soviet occupiers were replaced by German occupation forces, the head of the occupation administration von Mēdem (his ancestors were the original builders of Jelgava Castle), who had returned to Jelgava, did not like the clear symbolism. On October 31, 1942, by order of the German occupation authorities, the author of the monument was ordered to carve the image of a German knight. The carving of the knight was assigned to the author of the monument – K. Jansons. In 1950, by order of the Soviet occupation authorities, the monument was destroyed. With the help of a tractor, Lāčplēsis was knocked down from the pedestal, smashed and an attempt was made to completely destroy it in a stone crusher. But Lāčplēsis turned out to be so hard that the stone crusher broke. Then the undestroyed middle part of the Lāčplēsis statue was secretly buried in the ground in the territory of a kindergarten. A fragment of the monument was found in 1988 and is currently located at Ģ. Elias in the Jelgava History and Art Museum. The monument was restored and unveiled on November 21, 1992. Its author is sculptor Andrejs Jansons, who restored the monument created by his father K. Jansons.