The staircase of Bengtskär Lighthouse is dim and dark. Black and white photo taken from above.
The staircase of Bengtskär Lighthouse is dim and dark. Black and white photo taken from above.

Staircase

starting at €90.00

The 252 steps of this staircase have witnessed millions of children's footsteps as well as gunfire and battles of life and death. For over 60 years, lighthouse keepers climbed Bengtskär's 52-meter tower to maintain the lighting equipment, lenses, and clockwork mechanism that rotated the beam of light. The counterweight of the mechanism alone weighed 225 kilograms! At its peak, the lighthouse building was home to 37 people, and nowadays thousands of visitors come there every year.

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The 252 steps of this staircase have witnessed millions of children's footsteps as well as gunfire and battles of life and death. For over 60 years, lighthouse keepers climbed Bengtskär's 52-meter tower to maintain the lighting equipment, lenses, and clockwork mechanism that rotated the beam of light. The counterweight of the mechanism alone weighed 225 kilograms! At its peak, the lighthouse building was home to 37 people, and nowadays thousands of visitors come there every year.

The lighthouse stands at the edge of the world. Smoothly worn steps lead up to the lantern room. From there, you can see the shadows of the clouds reflected in the sea—and the small world of the lighthouse island. Starting in the 1950s, lighthouses began to be left without keepers or even became completely obsolete. It was not until around the turn of the millennium that the cultural and architectural value of these navigational aids, abandoned to the mercy of the weather and vandalism, began to be understood, and efforts were made to save them. Everyone who has helped save even one of our lighthouses has given a gift to all Finns.

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