Eternal flame
An eternal flame is a flame, lamp or torch that burns for an indefinite time. Most eternal flames are ignited and tended intentionally. However, some are natural phenomena caused by natural gas leaks, peat fires and coal seam fires, all of which can be initially ignited by lightning, piezoelectricity or human activity, some of which have burned for hundreds or thousands of years.
In ancient times, eternal flames were fueled by wood or olive oil; modern examples usually use a piped supply of propane or natural gas. Human-created eternal flames most often commemorate a person or event of national significance, serve as a symbol of an enduring nature such as a religious belief, or a reminder of commitment to a common goal, such as diplomacy.
Religious and cultural significance
The eternal fire is a long-standing tradition in many cultures and religions. In ancient Iran the atar was tended by a dedicated priest and represented the concept of "divine sparks" or Amesha Spenta, as understood in Zoroastrianism. Period sources indicate that three "great fires" existed in the Achaemenid era of Persian history, which are collectively considered the earliest reference to the practice of creating ever-burning community fires.The eternal flame was a component of the Jewish religious rituals performed in the Tabernacle and later in the Temple in Jerusalem, where a commandment required a fire to burn continuously upon the Outer Altar. Modern Judaism continues a similar tradition by having a sanctuary lamp, the ner tamid, always lit above the ark in the synagogue. After World War II, such flames gained further meaning, as a reminder of the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust. Judaism has a concept of a נר תמיד or everlasting flame. This is commonly found hanging in front of the Aron Kodesh in orthodox Synagogues. It is meant as a remembrance of the Temple. Occasionally this flame is a fire which is kept lit 24/7. Other times it is merely electric and stays on all the time.
In traditional Christian denominations, such as Catholicism and Lutheranism, a chancel lamp continuously burns as an indication of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.
The Cherokee Nation maintained a fire at the seat of government until ousted by the Indian Removal Act in 1830. At that time, embers from the last great council fire were carried west to the nation's new home in the Oklahoma Territory. The flame, maintained in Oklahoma, was carried back to the last seat of the Cherokee government at Red Clay State Park in south-eastern Tennessee, to the Museum of the Cherokee People in Cherokee, North Carolina, and to the Cherokee Nation Tribal Complex in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
In China, it has at times been common to establish an eternally lit lamp as a visible aspect of ancestor veneration; it is set in front of a spirit tablet on the family's ancestral altar.
Extinguished flames
- Eternal fire at Nymphaion sanctuary in southern Illyria. Placed around the lower Vjosë/Aoos river near ancient Apollonia and present-day Selenica, Albania, the area was occupied by Illyrians since before archaic colonial times, and the site was likely already a place of worship because of its peculiar physical properties. According to ancient literary accounts the fire of the sanctuary never went out before an ancient war fought between Apollonia and the Illyrians.
- One of the three "Great Flames" of the Achaemenid Empire was extinguished during the reign of Alexander the Great to honour the death of his close friend Hephaestion in 324 BC.
- The Hebrew Bible commands that "The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out", regarding the altar of Burnt Offering in the Tabernacle, and later the altars in Solomon's Temple and the Second Temple. Many churches, along with Jewish synagogues, feature an eternal flame on or hung above their altars or Torah arks.
- The Sacred fire of Vesta in Ancient Rome, which burned within the Temple of Vesta on the Roman Forum, was extinguished in 394 AD.
- The sacred fire of the Celtic goddess Brigid burned at Kildare, Ireland in pagan times and the fire was continued when the site was Christianised by Saint Brigid in the 5th century AD. It continued burning until the 16th-century Dissolution of the Monasteries.
- The eternal flame near the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn in Estonia was extinguished after the country gained independence from the USSR in 1991.
- The eternal flame that was part of the East German "Memorial to the Victims of Fascism and Militarism" at the Neue Wache in East Berlin was removed after the 1990 German reunification. In 1993, the space was redesigned without a flame and rededicated as the "Central Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany for the Victims of War and Tyranny".
- Llama de la Libertad lit by Augusto Pinochet in 1975 in to commemorate the 1973 Chilean coup d'etat against Salvador Allende. It was extinguished in 2004.
- A high Eternal flame monument was erected in Belgrade in 2000, to commemorate the victims of 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. The flame was extinguished just months later, after the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević.
- A lighthouse-like memorial in the suburb of Eira in Helsinki, Finland was originally erected in honour of the Finnish seamen and seafaring. It later became a symbol of those who have perished at the sea, the Baltic Sea in particular. A minor controversy arose when the flame was temporarily extinguished, to conserve gas, technically meaning the flame was not an eternal one. It had been relit but in the middle 2010s, the city of Helsinki grew tired of having to relight the flame and decided to put it out for good.
Current man-made eternal flames
Europe
Belarus
- Minsk, at the Victory Square, lit in 1961.
- Baranovichi, at the memorial of the fallen during the Great Patriotic War, lit in 1964.
- Brest, near the ruins of the Engineering Administration, lit in 1972.
Belgium
- Brussels, at the foot of the Congress Column, surmounting the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Sarajevo, the Sarajevo eternal flame, in memory of the military and civilian victims of the Second World War.
Bulgaria
- Sofia, at the Monument to the Unknown Soldier
- Pazardzhik, at the Flower of Eternal Flame
Croatia
- Zagreb, in front of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in memory of the police officers killed in the Croatian War of Independence
- Sisak, in Dr. Franjo Tuđman Park, in front of the city market and swimming pool, in memory of soldiers fallen in the Croatian War of Independence. It is still active, but has been vandalised and put out several times throughout history.
France
- Paris, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the archway at the Arc de Triomphe, which has burned since 1923, and continuously since 1998, in memory of all who died in World War I. It was briefly extinguished during the 1998 World Cup by a drunk tourist.
- Arras, at the Notre Dame de Lorette war memorial.
Germany
- Berlin, at the Theodor-Heuss-Platz
- Munich, in the Square of the Victims of National Socialism
Hungary
- Budapest, in 2nd district Imre Nagy Square the "Flame Of The Revolution", commemorating the revolutionaries of the 1956 uprising against control by the Soviet Union.
- Budapest, at the corner of Báthory Street and Hold Street burns Batthyány's sanctuary lamp.
Ireland
- Dublin, at the junction of Amiens St and Memorial Road, the Universal Links on Human Rights by Amnesty International, honouring prisoners of conscience.
- Dublin, at Merrion Square Park, the National Memorial to members of the Defence Forces burns to honour those who have lost their lives in the service of the Irish State.
- Kildare, a perpetual flame burns in the town square. It was formerly housed, since 1993, at Solas Bhríde, a sanctuary run by the Catholic Brigidine sisters. The modern flame rekindles the original one burned by the sisters of Saint Brigit in Kildare, which was extinguished during the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
- New Ross, at a new monument to Irish emigrants. On June 18, 2013, a torch from the eternal flame at the John F. Kennedy grave at Arlington National Cemetery was used to light this flame.
Italy
- Madonna del Ghisallo, near Lake Como, for all cyclists who have died.
- Rome, on the Altare della Patria, for the Unknown Soldier.
Latvia
- Riga, at Brothers' Cemetery or Cemetery of the Brethren, a military cemetery and national monument memorializing thousands of Latvian soldiers who were killed between 1915 and 1920 in World War I and the Latvian War of Independence. The memorial was built between 1924 and 1936, and designed by sculptor Kārlis Zāle.
Lithuania
- Kaunas, at the Tomb of Unknown Soldier, in the Square of Unity in front of the Vytautas the Great War Museum.
Luxembourg
- Luxembourg City, near the Place du Saint-Esprit, in memory of all Luxembourgers fallen in World War II.
Malta
- Floriana, inaugurated in 2012. Two eternal flames are placed beside the War Memorial, dedicated to all the Maltese dead of World War I and World War II.
Moldova
- Chișinău, a flame dedicated to Chișinău's unknown soldiers who died in World War II at the Eternity Memorial Complex.
Netherlands
- Amsterdam, at the Hollandsche Schouwburg, in memorial of the Dutch Jewish people who were killed in World War II
- Maastricht, at the Market Square, a statue of Jan Pieter Minckeleers, a Dutch scientist and inventor who discovered illuminating gas and was the inventor of gas lighting.
- The Hague, at the Peace Palace, dedicated to the idea of international peace
- Oosterbeek, at the Airborne Museum Hartenstein, in memorial to those who died in the Battle of Arnhem during Operation Market Garden