MAXICARD of ESTONIA 2005 - 2023 - Lighthouses in Estonia.

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1997 - The present 39.5 meter iron lighthouse, assembled of parts made in Le Havre, France, was erected on Ruhnu Island in 1877, inctead of a former wooden affair. At the time of its building it was one of the cheapest models available and is the only one of type surviving in the Baltic sea. During World War I (1914-18) the lantern of the lighthouse was blasted with dynamite, but in 1937 the head of the structure was restored nearly to its original appearance. New equipment was installed, but in the room under the lantern the old mechanism survives in working order. The Ruhnu lighthouse is a steel cylinder with four buttresses on the outside and winding stairs up the hollow shaft. The lighthouse is painted red and stands at Haubjerre in the eastern part of the island. It is situated at 57048’N 23016’E, and its light is visible within a radius of 20 nautical miles.

1998 - A settlement first emerged at the mouth of the Kunda river on Estonia's northern shore in 1805, and a beacon was erected there to facilitate entry inot the harbour. Several improvements and a houndred years later, a lighthouse was built at the Kunda harbour, nearly an exact copy of a previous wooden lighthouse erected there in 1896. The base was made with dressed local limestone, with the board lining and the upper part of the gallery painted white. It stands 18.6 m above sea level and 17 m from the ground. Today the lighthouse is no longer used as a navigationl sign. The location of the lighthouse is 59°31',1 latitude N and 26°32',7 longitude E.

1999 - The Vilsandi lighthouse was built in 1809 on Vilsandi, an island off the western coast of Estonia's biggest island, Saaremaa. Flashing lights with a rotating screen brought into motion by a clock mechanism and weights were taken into use in 1817. In 1860, a lighting system with Fresnel's dioptric glass prisms was installed. The Vilsandi lighthouse is situated at 58° 22' N and 21° 48' E.

2000 - There are two important lighthouses on the Kõpu Peninsula of Estonia's western Hiiumaa Island. The Ristna lighthouse, a structure of two concentric metal cylinders connected with a winding stairway, was put up at the westernmost tip of the peninsula in 1874. In 1920, the lower part of the lighthouse was encased in concrete up to the service level, so now the 30-m lighthouse can be described as a reinforced concrete structure. It is located at 58o 56,40' N and 22o 03,31' E. About 9 km east of Ristna stands Kõpu lighthouse, the oldest in Estonia. Its history goes back to 1500 when the Tallinn Town Council was granted permission by the bishop of Oesel- Wiek (governing the territory of the present counties of Saare, Hiiu and Lääne) to erect a lighthouse at the highest place of the peninsula, rising to 68 above sea level. The lighthouse was completed in 1531. The lighthouse, a whitewashed square structure with massive buttresses at each of its sides, stands about 37 m from the ground, with the light on its red balcony flashing at 103 m from sea level. The coordinates of the Kõpu lighthouse are: 58o 54,96' N and 22o 11,98' E.

2001 - The building of a lighthouse on the small Mohni Island in the Gulf of Finland off Cape Purekkari in the Lahemaa National Park started early in the 19th century. The lighthouse, lying at 59o41,04' northern latitude and 25o47,73' eastern longitude, was thoroughly reconstructed in 1871, with two stories added and the lighting system revamped. At present Mohni lighthouse stands 27,4 m high and its light is visible to 10 nautical miles.

2002 - Laidunina Lighthouse was built in 1907 on Cape Laidunina on the east coast of Estonia's Saaremaa Island so it would contribute to safe navigation in the Gulf of Riga. The height of the lighthouse is 24 metres from the ground and 27 metres from sea level. Laidunina Lighthouse is situated at 58o22,7' N latitude and 23o05,29' E longitude.

2003 - Keri, one of the oldest Estonian lighthouses, stands on a small island of the same name at about 11 miles from the North-Estonian coast, roughly 6 miles due north of Prangli Island in the Gulf of Finland. The island’s first, 1724-built lighthouse was of wood. It was reconstructed early in the 19th century, when the light was mounted in a wooden tower erected on a tall stone base. The new lighthouse went into operation in November 1803. Fifty-five years later the wooden tower was dismantled and replaced by a metal structure with a dioptric light. At present the lighthouse consists of a red cylindrical metal tower on a cylindrical “decanter”. The lantern room at the top of the tower has a gallery running all around it. Nowadays the lighthouse is powered by solar cells and controlled by a computer. The light, visible to 11 miles, is mounted at 28 meters from the ground and at 32 metres from sea level.

2004 - The lighthouse is situated on Sorgu Island in the Gulf of Riga, 28 km SW of Pärnu and 5 km SE of Manilaid. The first unlit wooden landmark, a four-sided tower, was erected in 1864 at the south tip of the island to mark the entrance to Pärnu Bay. A new red brick tower 22 metres high along with a guard house and a fuel shed was put up on the north shore of Sorgu Island in 1903. The Sorgu Lighthouse was completed and went into operation in 1904, emitting a stable red light. The hight of the light was 16.1 meters from the ground and 19.2 meters from the sea level. Improvements carried out in 1927 increased the visibility of the light to 10 miles. Today, the lighthouse is a brick tower with a lantern deck and gallery. The white light is visible within ten and the red light within three miles. The Sorgu navigation aid marks a round anniversary in 2004 – 140 years of establishment and 100 years of the construction of the lighthouse.

2005 - The Norrby lights on Vormsi Island have the longest leading line in Estonian coastal waters, extending from the strait between Osmussaar Island and Cape Põõsaspea to the Ramsi lights in Voosi Strait – a total of nearly 11.5 nautical miles. The wooden framework structures put up during World War I were replaced with slender cylindrical reinforced concrete towers in 1935. The base of both the towers is octagonal with the cylindrical tower reaching upwards from it. The rear tower is 32 and the front one 22 meters high, and both have a wider gallery running round the lantern at the top. The front light stands 952 metres away from the rear light on the northewestern shore of the island. The towers are white, but the upper part of the rear tower has its uppermost third painted red. The lights of both the towers flash white, the front light every 2 seconds and the rear one every 4 seconds. The visibility of the lights is 12 miles. The name derives from the nearby Norrby Village. 2005 marks 70 years since the construction of the Norrby lights.

2006 - The Tallinn lighthouses are essential for safe navigation in Tallinn Bay, forming a line past all the shoals surrounding it in the north and guiding ships safely into the roads and the harbour of Tallinn. The lower lighthouse (Range Front), a stone building with an octagonal pyramidal tower, painted red, was built 200 years ago in 1806 and was given its present-date appearance in 1839. It rises to 18 meters from the base, standing on the edge of the Lasnamäe escarpment 48 meters above sea level and operating round the clock with the light visible to 19 nautical miles. The southern or upper lighthouse (Range Rear) is a stone tower with lantern and gallery. It is white at the bottom with the upper one third painted black. Built in 1835, it acquired the present appearance in 1896, 110 years ago. Standing 0.6 nautical miles inland from the lower lighthouse, it rises to 40 meters from the base, with the focal plane at 80 metres from sea level. The beacon works day and night and its light can be seen to a distance of 23 nautical miles.

2007 - Juminda is the biggest peninsula on Estonia’s northern shore. To facilitate entry into Hara Bay and Loksa Port an automatic blinking light was installed at the corner of the border guard observation platform at the tip of the peninsula in 1931. Six years later, in 1937, a 24-meter lighthouse was put up instead. In 1981 the regime of the lighthouse was changed to automatic and the visibility of the light was extended to 15 miles. In 2006 an upper part of eight metal cylinders was mounted on the former concrete shaft. The lighthouse now stands 32 meters high, the focal plane being at 40 meters. The Juminda Lighthouse is a cylindrical metal and concrete tower with a lantern and two galleries. It is red at the top, black in the middle and white at the bottom. In 2007 the Juminda Lighthouse will be 70 years old.

2008 - In autumn 1938 the biggest and tallest lighthouse of the Lake Peipsi area was put up in Mehikoorma. The cylindrical reinforced concrete lighthouse is three meters in diameter and stands 15 meters high; it has a lantern and gallery at the top. Its white light is lit in the dark hours from April to November and is visible to ten miles. The lighthouse ensures safe navigation in the area between Lakes Peipsi and Lämmijärv. Mehikoorma, a village of about 300 inhabitants, is situated in the Meeksi rural community in Tartu County. In addition to the lighthouse it has a basic school, a library, a hydrometrical station and border guard post. Mehikoorma is one of the oldest settlements on the Estonian shore of Lake Peipsi, first mentioned in 1242 in connection with the Ice Battle fought on the ice of Lake Peipsi between the Livonian Order and a Russian army. In 2008 the Mehikoorma light will be 70.

2009 - The small Hara Island near the western shore of Hara or Papilaht Bay (earlier Paponvik) is mainly covered with spruce forest. In 1909 an iron framework lighthouse 15.2 meters high was erected at the highest point (12 metres above sea level) of the island. At the time it had a major sprat salting facility with 350 workers where sprats were salted into tin cans under the name of Revelskiye kilki (Tallinn Sprats) since 1870. The Tallinn Sprats made in Hara were shipped to St Petersburg via Loksa Port. Initially the sea mark of Hara Island was visible to 10 nautical miles. In 1954 major rebuilding of the lighthouse was carried out as the navigation mark was to be connected with a new military port. The hight of the tower was increased to 23.7 meters with the red light visible to seven nautical miles. But gradually importance of the port declined and in the late 1980s the installations were dismantled from the Hara Lighthouse and it became a day mark. Its present hight is 24 metres and it consists of a cylinder with a conical red roof over a metal framework. The tip of the sea mark is clearly visible over the forest. The Hara Lightouse will be one hundred this year.

2010 - The Suurupi Peninsula lies on Estonia's northern coast about 20 km west of Tallinn. On the initiative of Russian Rear Admiral Mordvinov a lighthouse 20 meters high was built on the peninsula in 1760. After some rebuilding, the stone tower received as a glass lantern room. As a result the light stood at 16 meters from the base with a focal plane of about 41 meters. As such the lighthouse stood until 1944. In 1859 another, front lighthouse was built at 1.2 miles from the rear one: a three-storied wooden truncated pyramid with a gable roof. Its focal plane was 15 meters, 11 meters from the base. When German forces withdrew from Estonia in 1944 they set fire to the stone Suurupi lighthouse. Its restoration and reconstruction work began soon: the burned timber ceilings were replaced by reinforced concrete ceilings supported on steel girders, metal stairs were built into the tower and electricity replaced earlier gas in the lantern. Later a cylindrical floor of a narrower diameter was built up top of the stone tower and the lantern room was lifted on the roof. The light now stood at 22 meters from the base with a focal plane of 66-meters as the lighthouse stand on a cliff 44 meters high. In 1971 also the lights of the front lighthouse were switched to electricity. The leading lights mark a shipping lane of 10-meter depth leading west out of Tallinn Bay. The front lighthouse is a white quadrangular wooden truncated pyramid, while the rear lighthouse is a white cylindrical stone tower with a balcony and a black lantern room. In 2009 the front Suurupi light marked its sesquicentennial, while the rear lighthouse marks its 250th anniversary this year.

2011 - The village in the eastern part of the Vergi Peninsula was first mentioned in 1539; from 1582 there is a concrete reference to the Vergi Port. In the late 19th and early 20th century Vergi was one of the biggest fishing villages on the North Estonian coast, particularly known as the best eel fishing place. In the 1920s it served as a wintering place for small ships and it also had a shipbuilding industry. In 1924 an automatic light pyramidal lattice frame light beacon covered with iron plating was put up on a large coastal reef next to Vergi Port. Analogous beacons were erected on several other Estonian islands, such as Prangli and Muhu. In 1936 a reinforced concrete lighthouse ten meters high replaced the rust-eaten structure. During World War II there was no light in the Vergi lighthouse, but it started blinking again in 1945. Vergi Lighthouse, which will be 75 in 2011, is a white concrete tower with lantern room and balcony, 10 meters high from the foot. The height of the light from sea level is 11 meters and the visibility of the light is nine miles.

2012 - The lighthouse on the higher western bank of Käsmu Bay (earlier Kasperwieck) is one of few wooden lighthouses that have come down to our days. The Käsmu Lighthouse, built on the initiative of local ship owners and the maritime school, began working in 1892. It was a building more like a wooden house six meters high with the walls painted white. The height of the light was 8.2 meters and its visibility six miles. Starting from 1900 the Käsmu Lighthouse worked with a blinking light. In 1923 a signal mast was erected at the back of the lighthouse for sending storm warnings to ships at sea. The lighthouse escaped without any damage both from World War I and II. With its green, white and red lights it gave the opportunity of safe entry into Käsmu Bay where ships could find shelter in stormy weather. For centuries Käsmu Bay was considered the best shelter on the Tallinn-Narva shipping route. Despite repeated threats of collapse due to advance of the sea the Käsmu Lighthouse has kept its original appearance. In 1993 burning a light in the lighthouse stopped and the Käsmu lighthouse remained in the maritime register as a day light until 2004 when it was removed from the navigation aids database. Although it is not possible to find the Käsmu lighthouse from sea charts, the unique structure survives as a cultural heritage monument in the landscape. The Käsmu Lighthouse will be 120 years old in 2012.

2013 - The lighthouse of the same name standing at Kiipsaare Head in the northwestern corner of Harilaid Peninsula of the Estonian island of Saaremaa was built in 1933. The 25 metre reinforced concrete structure of the same name has been painted black in alternative stripes and its lantern roof is black. The altitude of the round sector acetylene light was 27 meters, and its visibility 12 miles. Its duty was to warn seamen about the dangers in the vicinity of the peninsula and to be of assistance in taking bearings. Five years later a stone house was built next to the lighthouse and a year later a sauna as well. During the years the nature of the lighthouse has changed and in 1988-1992 it worked fed by radioactive isotopes. If in 1988 the waterline was still 11 meters from the lighthouse, then by the early 1990s the sea had already arrived at the lighthouse and it started to incline. Because of this the generator was removed in 1992 and Kiipsaare Lighthouse remained in the records as a daymark until 2009. This year Kiipsaare Lighthouse will be 80.2003 - Keri, one of the oldest Estonian lighthouses, stands on a small island of the same name at about 11 miles from the North-Estonian coast, roughly 6 miles due north of Prangli Island in the Gulf of Finland. The island’s first, 1724-built lighthouse was of wood. It was reconstructed early in the 19th century, when the light was mounted in a wooden tower erected on a tall stone base. The new lighthouse went into operation in November 1803. Fifty-five years later the wooden tower was dismantled and replaced by a metal structure with a dioptric light. At present the lighthouse consists of a red cylindrical metal tower on a cylindrical “decanter”. The lantern room at the top of the tower has a gallery running all around it. Nowadays the lighthouse is powered by solar cells and controlled by a computer. The light, visible to 11 miles, is mounted at 28 meters from the ground and at 32 metres from sea level.

2014 - The Sõru (Sõrro) leading lights are situated on the southeast coast of Hiiumaa at 487 meters from each other. The history of the Sõru lights started about a hundred years ago when numerous timber lighthouses and day lights were put up, including the first lights to mark the shipping route from Väinameri to Sõru port. After World War One restoration of the lighthouses that had suffered in the war was begun and the two new Sõru lighthouses were completed by 1934. Then the visibility of the lower light was 12 miles and that of the upper 10 miles. By 1950 both the Sõru lighthouses were painted white at the bottom and red at the top. By today the lights of both the lighthouses have been modernized and the visibility of the lower Sõru light is six miles, the height of the light from the ground 13 meters and 11 meters from the base. The visibility of the Sõru upper light is six miles is as follows: white six miles, red and green three miles; the height of the light from the ground is 18 meters and 16 meters from the base. In 2014 the Sõru leading lights will be 80 years old.

2015 - The Tahkuna lighthouse lies on the Estonian Hiiumaa island’s the northern peninsula of the same name. The lighthouse was built in 1875 and its duty is to warn ships sailing from the Gulf of Finland into the Baltic Sea from the dangerous Hiiumadal and shoals in entry into the Muhu Straight. The 43 meter lighthouse has a white tower and a red lantern. Its diameter on the ground is 8.95 m and 4 meters at the tip. By 1879, in connection with the change to petrol, a fuel storehouse which operated until World War One was put up next to it. There were fierce battles at the Tahkuna lighthouse during World War Two and its lighting equipment suffered badly. By 1951 it got new equipment and thoroughly restored. In 1961 the Tahkuna lighthouse became one of the first Baltic Sea lighthouses with an automatic diesel electricity generator. At present the visibility of the Tahkuna Lighthouse is 12 miles. This year Tahkuna Lighthouse marks its 14th anniversary.

2016 - Planning and building of the first Virtsu lighthouse started in 1863 and the first assembled Virtsu lighthouse went into operation in 1866. It was red in colour with a green cast iron cap, 28 eight meters high with the visibility of the light 11 miles, which was increased to 16 by 1914. In 1917 the Virtsu lighthouse was blasted by retreating Russian forces. This was the only Estonian cast iron that lighthouse was destroyed in World War One. In 1924 a new reinforced concrete lighthouse was built instead of the destroyed lighthouse the height of 19 meters and the diameter of 2.5 meters. The tower was red and the lower part white. In 1944 retreating the reinforced concrete tower was destroyed by retreating German forces. In 1951 a totally new lighthouse was built. It was a four- sided truncated four-sided pyramid 19 meters high in the same colours. At its top is an athetylen lamp that shows the light from the height of 19 m. Today the lighthouse has modernized equipment and a Sabik lantern NL-300. In 2016 the Virtsu Lighthouse will be 65 years old. In 2106 the building of the Virtsu lighthouse will be 150 years.

2017 - The Orjaku leading light lighthouses are located on the southern coast of Hiiu County by Jausa Bay and signal a safe fairway to Orjaku Port. The lighthouses made of mounted reinforced concrete rings were built in Orjaku in 1962 and their shape resembled those of the ones built in accordance with standard pre-war projects. There is a black vertical stripe on the front of the white navigation aids. The foremost lighthouse is 10 m tall and the light is 13 m above sea level. The rearmost lighthouse is 536 m away from the other one, stands 16 m tall, and the light is 23 m above sea level. The rearmost lighthouse is equipped with a round sector light. The lights of the lighthouses were initially fuelled by acetylene but then connected to the main power supply. By 2010, the lights had been replaced by more modern ones. The navigation aids that will turn 55 years old in 2017 have been classified as light beacons. Orjaku has now become a tourist port that can accept seagoing vessels with draughts up to 3.5 m. There is a nature trail with an observation tower 1 km from the port.

2018 - The Manilaid lighthouse is situated in the Kihnu Strait on the south-western coast of the Manilaid island on Cape Papina and helps to make local shipping safer in the low waters of the strait. The reinforced concrete lighthouse, which was built in 1933, is 8 metres high and it was designed by the well-known architect of navigation marks Armas Luige. An automatic acetyl lantern was initially installed in the iron lantern locker, the lighthouse was powered by the electricity grid in the beginning of the 1990s, however, automatic solar-powered machinery was installed later on. In the 1990s, the classification of the lighthouse was changed to a beacon, although the change in the term did not decrease the importance of the seamark. In 2015, the beacon was moved about 20 metres from its previous location during renovation works, as the waving sea would have caused it to deteriorate, if left in its original location. This was the first time that the Maritime Administration did not build a new navigation mark at the original location, but relocated the existing one.

2019 - Osmussaar lighthouse stands on the edge of the Baltic klint on the north-west tip of the island of the same name, which sits quite a distance from the coast on an important shipping lane in the Gulf of Finland. As such, it is an important marker for navigation. A stone light tower was constructed on Osmussaar in 1765, while the first stone lighthouse proper was built in 1850 but destroyed in World War II. In 1954 the temporary wooden tower erected after the war was replaced with a new cylindrical lighthouse made from reinforced concrete. Standing 35.4 metres high, the black-and-white-striped structure features a spiral staircase with 170 steps. It is a traditional lighthouse with an observation and lantern room and a balcony. For the first time in the Soviet Union, climbing formwork was utilised when pouring the concrete – a method later employed in lighthouse construction throughout the USSR. The lighthouse was fully renovated in 1998, with its lantern room being replaced.

Osmussaar lighthouse turns 65 this year, but 2020 will mark 255 years since the first marker was erected on the island.

2020 - Kihnu lighthouse is located on the Pitkänä Cape at the southern tip of Kihnu island. The lighthouse assembled from cast iron details ordered from the Porter & Co factory in England in 1863 was quite innovative for its time in terms of construction and material. The 28-metre white conical cast iron lighthouse with a green lantern room and cupola roof was finished in 1864 and started working for the following year's navigation season. The Kihnu lighthouse was characterised by a "light illuminating for 18 seconds every half a minute (period 48 seconds) with a sight distance reaching 11 miles across the horizon".

In 2018, the Estonian Maritime Administration completely renovated the lighthouse. The lantern room was brought to the ground for repair works and a new cupola roof was built. New powerful and energy efficient LED sector lights were installed in the lighthouse. This evened the sight distance of the lighthouse across all sectors.

The Kihnu lighthouse has preserved its original look, only the lighting systems have been modernised. The petrol room, cellar, wellhouse and stable from the 19th century and the living quarters, generator building and sauna from the second half of the 20th century are still there.

In 2020, the unchanging Kihnu lighthouse turns 155 years old.

2021 - Letipea lighthouse is located on the Letipea cape near the town of Kunda and marks the Letipea Peninsula, stretching out from the northern shore to assist navigation at sea. The first wooden lighthouse was built by the merchant Šerbin, but this operated only from 1815-1816. In 1936, a 16-metre-high reinforced concrete standard lighthouse with a diameter of two metres, which was equipped with a carbide lamp and sector lights, was constructed on the cape. The visibility of the light located 17 m above sea level was 12 miles. The lighthouse was destroyed during World War II in 1941, and in 1945 an automatic carbide lamp was temporarily installed on the chimney of the old cordon building ruins. A new standard 15-metre rectangular lighthouse was built in 1951 from stone and concrete. The nature of the light and light sectors remained the same. In the 1980s, the lighthouse was transferred to atomic battery. After removal of this equipment in 1993, the light did not shine until 1995 when a solar- and wind-powered automatic system was installed that worked with the old EMN-500 (ЭMH–500) lamp. In 2007, the illumination device was upgraded with a circular LED lamp E 8274 and the coloured light sectors were removed. The visibility of the white light is 7 miles.