Urmas Dresen

MARITIME HERITAGE AND COASTAL CULTURE – BALTIC LIGHTS, ESTONIA

During the last ten years lighthouses and the lighthouse public and they must take care of the tower. This year service have changed dramatically. The first phase was we have signed an agreement with him that states that when the Estonian Department of Waterways took the museum will help to make a permanent exhibition over the lighthouses and beacons from the Soviet of the history of the lighthouse. There is also a small Hydrographic Service. For some years most of our cafe and other tourist facilities and without any doubt lighthouses were actually manned by the same staff as it will be one of the main tourist attractions on the previous years. island. The same kind of development (but on a Starting from 1996-1997 the Department of smaller scale) is going on at the lighthouses at Suurupi, Waterways started with a programme to modernize Sõrve and Vilsandi. the lighthouse lenses and power supply systems. In some occasions it happened together with restoration of the whole tower (for example Mohni/Ekholm lighthouse on the small island in the northern coast and Pakri/Pakerort). Usually only the light system was changed, but sometimes the whole upper part was also changed using helicopters for lifting. The negative aspect was that we lost some of the original lamp rooms, made mostly from copper and brass. That type of modernisation was stopped after two years and the Department of Waterways is now working in conjunction with the National Board of Antiquities. Some examples from this period include the Estonian Maritime Museum’s restoration of two of the old lamp rooms (from Suurupi and Naissaare lighthouses). The first mentioned is now on the top of our museum cannon tower and the second is converted to a ticket office at the Tallinn harbour, close to our museum ship “Suur Tõll”. The biggest of these lamp rooms from Tahkuna lighthouse in Hiiumaa now belongs to the local museum and is awaiting its fate. Almost all the lighthouses still belong to the Department of Waterways. Sometimes they are owned by the state, and they also include one of the technical buildings (for example the building for diesel generators). With new special plastic lenses and modern diode lights (invented and manufactured in Estonia) they are fully automated with a solar power supply. The other side is that more or less all the other buildings around the lighthouse are owned privately (mostly they are the same people who ranthem in previous years). Most lighthouses in the small islands (for example Mohni / Ekholm; Keri / Kokskär) are not manned any more and nobody lives in the surrounding buildings either. The oldest and also the most interesting lighthouse Kõpu, on the island of Hiiumaa (Dagö), is owned by Suurupi (Suurop) lower lighthouse on the Gulf of Finland. Built the local municipality. It is rented out privately with in 1859, rebuilt in 1885 and 1998. The oldest wooden lighthouse the conditions that the lighthouse must be open for the in Estonia.

84 Estonian lighthouses. The current status of protection.

No Lighthouse Area First Built Material Height of Height of Under mentioned the tower the light protection from from sea level 1. Kõpu Baltic Sea 1505 1531 Stone+plaster 36 102 1973 2. Suurupi I Finnish Gulf 1760 1760 Stone+plaster 22 66 1997 3. Keri Finnish Gulf 1719 1803 Stone+plaster 31 31 1997 4. Tallinna II Finnish Gulf 1806 1806 Stone+plaster 18 49 1997 5. Vilsandi Baltic Sea 1809 1809 Stone+plaster 37 40 planned 6. Mohni Finnish Gulf 1806 1852 Brick 27 33 1997 7. Suurupi II Finnish Gulf 1859 1859 Wood 15 18 1997 8. Vormsi Moonsund 1864 1864 Cast iron 24 27 1998 9. Kihnu Pärnu Bay 1864 1864 Cast iron 32 28 planned 10. Vaindloo Finnish Gulf 1718 1871 Cast iron 17 20 planned 11. Ristna Baltic Sea 1874 1874 Steel 30 37 1999 12. Tahkuna Baltic Sea 1875 1875 Cast iron 43 43 1999 13. Ruhnu Riga Bay 1646 1877 Steel 40 65 1973 14. Viirelaid Moonsund 1857 1881 Steel 11 15 planned 15. Pakri Finnish Gulf 1724 1889 Stone+plaster 52 73 1997 16. Käsmu Finnish Gulf 1892 1892 Wood 5 8 1986 17. Tallinna I Finnish Gulf 1835 1896 Stone+plaster 40 80 1997 18. Sorgu Pärnu Bay 1864 1904 Brick 16 19 planned 19. Laidunina Moonsund 1907 1907 Brick 24 27 planned 21. Kunda Finnish Gulf 1859 1909 Wood 19 1986 22. Abruka I Moonsund 1897 1931 Concrete 36 38 planned 23. Sõrve Baltic Sea 1646 1960 Concrete 52 52 planned

Kõpu (Dagerort) lighthouse on Keri (Kokskär) lighthouse on the Tahkuna (Tackerort) Ruhnu (Runö) lighthouse the island Hiiumaa. island Keri in the Finnish Gulf. lighthouse on the island on island Ruhnu in the Gulf of Built in 1531, rebuilt in 1810, Built in 1804. Hiiumaa. Built in 1875 by Riga. Built in 1877, 1845 and 1990. The oldest From the beginning of the 18th British engineer Gordon, its iron components were lighthouse still in use in the century at the same place there it is the highest cast-iron tower shipped from Le Havre. Baltic Sea region. was a wooden tower, rebuilt in in Estonia. Reconstructed in 1937. 1837, 1858, 1937 and 1974. The first lighthouse in Estonia that was provided with a Fresnel lens system in 1858.

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