Tallinn's War of Independence Victory Column looked good when it was unveiled in June, but has since deteriorated due to shoddy construction.
TALLINN — Tallinn’s War of Independence Victory Column, beset with technical problems ever since it was unveiled in June, will remain unlit as a Czech company renovating it have proved unable to fix the lighting.
The Estonian Ministry of Defense dropped the contract, canceling a payment of 5.3 million krooni (€338,000) with the Czech company Sans Souci as they were unable to fix the statue’s lighting system and issued the glass art specialists a €50,000 fine. The memorial has been under renovation for weeks as the moisture that entered the glass panels damaged the statue’s electrical system. The renovation works were supposed to be finished by Dec. 15 but now the ministry is searching for a new company to fix the lighting system.
Minister of Defense Jaak Aaviksoo, said at a press conference Monday that after two deadline extensions, Sans Souci failure to make the statue’s lighting system function is unacceptable.
“Uneven lighting, unreliable light mode, and other minor flaws do not allow us to accept such work by our Czech partners, therefore when it comes to the light solutions, we no longer can cooperate with them,” Aaviksoo said.
Aaviksoo said the ministry has been trying to find a new partner and that until the new lighting solution will be worked out the statue will stay unlit. The cost of the monument so far has been 110 million krooni (€7 million).
When the statue will function normally is yet unknown. Rainer Sternfeld, the architect that designed the memorial, said he was disappointed in an interview with Eesti Päevaleht published Monday. Sternfeld asserted that the Czechs would have not done such negligent work if it was their own statue.
“The difference is in work culture — they say one thing and do another. An Estonian company could have not afforded something like that as this construction would have been an honor,” Sternfeld said. “If the Czechs would have built the statue in Prague, the attitude would have been different.”
The decision to build a statue of liberty was made in 2004 and was opened June 23, but has faced one renovation after another since. Right after it was put up it appeared that three glass panels were defect, but then two of the replacement panels arrived in wrong format. Then, three glass panels turned pink as dust managed to get in creating stains inside the panels. Finally the electrical system of the lighting broke down due to the water that seeped inside the panels, leaving the memorial in its current state.
