Bengtskär lighthouse
| Bengtskär lighthouse | ||
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| Place: |
 Finland , Bengtskär
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| Location: | Varsinais-Suomi , Finland | |
| Geographical location: | 59 ° 43 '24.4 " N , 22 ° 29' 57.4" E | |
| Fire carrier height : | 46 m | |
| Fire height : | 51 m | |
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| Identifier : | Fl (3) W.20s | |
| Scope knows: | 10 nm (18.5 km ) | |
| Optics: | Fresnel lens | |
| Function: | Sea and warning fire | |
| Construction time: | 1906 | |
| International ordinal number: | C 4906 | |
The Bengtskär lighthouse with a tower height of 46 m is the highest lighthouse in Finland and Scandinavia with a fire height of 51 m.
Geography and technology
The Bengtskär lighthouse is located on the otherwise uninhabited southern Finnish island of Bengtskär in the Baltic Sea at the entrance to the Gulf of Finland in the municipality of Kimitoön , 25 km southwest of Hanko . A special kerosene lamp was made for the tower in Paris in 1906 , which shone three times every 20 seconds and was visible for 20 nautical miles .
history
The Finnish architect Florentin Granholm presented his design for a lighthouse as early as 1900 at the World Exhibition in Paris, but it was not until the sinking of the Helsingfors steamship on January 1, 1905 that the government at the time decided to release the funds for the construction. The following year the structure was erected and on December 19, 1906 the lighthouse was put into operation.
Due to its strategically important location at the entrance to the Gulf of Finland, the lighthouse has been the target of military actions on several occasions. After the beginning of the First World War, the lighthouse was taken out of service and the lighthouse keepers and their families living on the island evacuated. Shortly afterwards, the two German cruisers Magdeburg and Augsburg shot at the lighthouse, but it was not destroyed. Since the Gulf of Finland was very heavily mined, the lighthouse was not put back into operation until 1919, when the waters had been reopened for navigation.
On March 13, 1940, the winter war ended with the signing of the peace treaty in Moscow , but at the end of June 1941 the conflict between Finland and the Soviet Union escalated to the point where the war continued . On July 26, 1941, the lighthouse was supposed to be destroyed by landed Soviet troops. This attack could be repelled, but the building on the tower was badly damaged by a Soviet bomb on July 27th. The lighthouse was not put back into operation until 1950.
In 1968 the operation of the beacon was automated. Until the middle of the eighties the lighthouse was damaged more and more by vandals and fell into disrepair. The Finnish authorities not only wanted to prevent the facility from deteriorating further, but also wanted to ensure that the damage would be repaired and that it would be used sensibly in the future. Ultimately, responsibility for this was transferred to the Center of Extension Studies at the University of Turku. The extensive renovation work was completed in 1995 and the tower was opened to the public on August 18, 1995 to mark the 75th anniversary of the University of Turku.
tourism
The lighthouse has been operated as a family pension since 1995. In addition to overnight accommodation, there is a restaurant with a cafe, a postal service and a free Finnish sauna for overnight guests . The building complex also has a conference room, a souvenir shop and, in the basement, in addition to changing maritime exhibits in the Lecture Hall , Finland's first lighthouse museum and a permanent exhibition on the battle of Bengtskär ; there is also a chapel on the ground floor of the building. The lighthouse, the top of which is publicly accessible via a 252-step spiral staircase, is visited by around 10,000 tourists annually, including more than 1,000 overnight guests.
literature
- Paula Wilson: Bengtskär ː majakka, koti ja taistelutanner . Schildts & Söderströms, 2009, ISBN 978-9-51501-204-3 .
Web links
- Homepage of the island: Come to visit, Services, See and experience (English, also available in Finnish and Swedish)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d History of the lighthouse on the website of Bengtskär Ltd. ( Memento of May 4, 2019 in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved April 19, 2020.
- ↑ online entry on the wreck of the SS Helsingfors in the database www.wrecksite.eu. Retrieved November 11, 2017.
- ↑ online website of the Württembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart with an entry on what happened on July 26, 1941. Retrieved on November 12, 2017.