Close-up of Bengtskär's enormous lens. Black and white photo.
Close-up of Bengtskär's enormous lens. Black and white photo.

Bengtskär Lens

starting at €90.00

The magnificent clockwork kept the beam of the newly completed Bengtskär lighthouse rotating. The flash was visible for almost 40 km. The valuable machinery survived the First World War, but during the Second World War, despite the tenacious defense battle of Bengtskär, the original fog signal and power stations, as well as the lantern with its lighting equipment, were destroyed when a bomb dropped from an airplane exploded on the second floor after passing through three roofs. After the war, the light and fog signalling systems were replaced with electric ones, until they too were removed when the lighthouse was automated. The impressive lens is back in place, though no longer in use. The current halogen light has a range of just under 20 km.

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The magnificent clockwork kept the beam of the newly completed Bengtskär lighthouse rotating. The flash was visible for almost 40 km. The valuable machinery survived the First World War, but during the Second World War, despite the tenacious defense battle of Bengtskär, the original fog signal and power stations, as well as the lantern with its lighting equipment, were destroyed when a bomb dropped from an airplane exploded on the second floor after passing through three roofs. After the war, the light and fog signalling systems were replaced with electric ones, until they too were removed when the lighthouse was automated. The impressive lens is back in place, though no longer in use. The current halogen light has a range of just under 20 km.

The LIGHTHOUSE stands at the edge of the world. The stairs smoothed by thousands of steps lead to the lantern room. From there, you can see the shadows of the clouds reflected in the mirror of the sea – and the small world of the lighthouse island or cape. In Finland lighthouses began to be left without keepers or even become completely unnecessary from the 1050s. It was not until the turn of the millennium that the cultural and architectural value of these sea markers, abandoned to the mercy of the weather and vandalism, began to be understood and efforts were initiated to save them. Everyone who has participated in saving even one of our lighthouses has given a gift to all Finns.

Discover my work The Sea That Rinses My Feet  (texts in Finnish, English, and Swedish)

Discover my book Kuohu – Hooked on the Archipelago (texts in Finnish or Swedish)