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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Dryburgh Abbey on the banks of the River Tweed in the Scottish Borders was founded in 1150 in an agreement between Hugh de Morville, Constable of Scotland, and the Premonstratensian canons regular from Alnwick Abbey in Northumberland. The arrival of the canons along with their first abbot, Roger, took place in 1152.
It was burned by English troops in 1322, after which it was restored only to be again burned by Richard II in 1385, but it flourished in the fifteenth century. It was finally destroyed in 1544, briefly surviving until the Scottish Reformation, when it was given to the Earl of Mar by James VI of Scotland. It is now a designated scheduled monument and the surrounding landscape is included in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland.
David Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan bought the land in 1786. Sir Walter Scott and Douglas Haig are buried in its grounds.