Kõpu lighthouse
Encyclopedia
Kõpu Lighthouse is one of the best known symbols and tourist sights on the Estonia
n island of Hiiumaa
. It is one of the oldest lighthouse
s in the world, having been in continuous use since its completion in 1531.
The lighthouse marks the Hiiu sandbank and warns ships away from the shoreline. Light from Kõpu Lighthouse can be used for navigation as far as 26 nmi (48.2 km; 29.9 mi) away, although in 1997 a radar lighthouse largely took over its role as navigation aid.
Kõpu Lighthouse was previously known under its Swedish
name, Upper Dagerort lighthouse.
The lighthouse is built at the top of the highest hillock of Hiiumaa island, Tornimägi (Tower Hill, 68 metres (223 ft)). The height of the building itself is 36 metres (118 ft), and the light is 102.6 metres (337 ft) above sea level, making it the highest coastal light on the Baltic Sea
.
Kõpu Lighthouse has the shape of a square prism, with massive counterforts in the directions of principal divisions of the compass. The tower is laid solely of stone up to the height of 24 metres (78.7 ft). The outside layer of the walls is supported by lime mortar, with the body itself built without mortar.
The body of the tower contains roughly 5000 cubic metres (6,539.8 cu yd) of stone, with its total weight reaching 12000 tonnes (26,455,471.5 lb). Local limestone
and glacial erratic
stones were used as building material.
Originally, the base of the tower was solid stone without any rooms; the top of the lighthouse was reached using external wooden stairs, which were later replaced with iron ones. During reconstruction in the 1800s, a stairway was cut into the tower and has remained in use since.
passed the Hiiu sandbank. Already before the year 1490 the Hanseatic
merchants were seeking permission to mark this peninsula with an outstanding landmark. Around 1490 they asked the bishop of Bishopric of Ösel-Wiek
to let them build a landmark on the Kõpu peninsula which was under the bishop’s control. This action had no real results.
At a meeting of the Hanseatic League
in Lübeck in 1499, they applied once more to the bishop for permission to build a beacon. On 20 April 1500 Bishop Johannes III Orgas (John Orgies) agreed to allow a massive stone pillar without any openings. To cover the building costs, Tallinn city council had to establish a special lighthouse tax until the sum was complete.
Building of the beacon was supposed to start in the summer of 1500, but the building was stopped when Wolter von Plettenberg
, master of the Livonian Order
, started a war which lasted until 1503. In the spring of 1504, purchase and delivery of the building materials began, but in the autumn of the same year the plague broke out, stopping the work once more. Building work was discontinued and alderman Lambert Ottingk, the magistrate
in charge of the building, died in Tallinn on 28 December 1505.
The account ledgers of Tallinn city council contain entries about the Kõpu lighthouse from 1507 to 1533, showing money was spent on the beacon of Hiiumaa from 13 May 1514 until 12 October 1532. The amounts show the majority of the work took place from 1514 to 1519; later there are only a couple of bigger expenditures on the beacon. A fire was first lit in the autumn of 1531; it was simply a bonfire on top of the tower.
The 20 m (65.6 ft) high and 8 m (26.2 ft) wide tower was visible on a clear day up to 20 kilometres (12.4 mi) offshore.
in the lighthouse, but due to high transport costs of coal, wood was used instead.
The fire consumed up to 1000 cords of firewood every year during the 180-day navigation period, a quantity so great that it led to deforestation of most of the Kõpu peninsula. A team of six was on guard every night, but storms extinguished the fire often. A rule passed in 1652 decreed that the fire must be strong and a fathom
(~2 yards (1.8 m)) high.
Count Axel Julius De la Gardie
bought the island of Hiiumaa
from the King of Sweden for 38,000 thalers and took over management of the Kõpu lighthouse in 1659. He had its height extended to 35.6 m (116.8 ft) and the wooden stairs replaced with an iron staircase. The light, now visible from as far as 24 kilometres (14.9 mi) away, was lit one hour after the sun set and extinguished one hour before sunrise.
The Russian Empire
took over the administration of the lighthouse in 1805. Major reconstruction of the tower began in 1810. A stone staircase was cut to the southern counterfort plus a room large enough for a team of six men. Into the upper part they made two subsidiary rooms, one on top of the other, and another, the topmost room, 35 metres (114.8 ft) from the ground, was for the lanterns. The lantern room housed twenty three oil lamps, using silver-plated brass reflectors. The lamps burned hemp oil
, requiring 3.28 tonnes (7,231.2 lb) yearly.
In 1845, a crack in the upper part of the lighthouse called for extensive reconstruction, which saw part of the tower pulled down and rebuilt. The tower now gained its final height: 36 metres (118.1 ft). A wooden structure with lamp-chimneys was built for the lantern and its optical devices.
The lighthouse came under navy control, and the first maintenance rules were laid down. The fire was to be lit and extinguished in strict accordance to sunrise and sunset. In cloudy weather lighthouse keeper
s were to consult a calendar for the necessary data. At that time, the fire was kept burning nightly from 1 July to 1 May – 10 months of the year.
As part of his naval reforms, Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaevich of Russia demanded modernization of the Kõpu lighthouse, in 1859. In May 1860, a novel gyratory device (manufactured by Le Paute in Paris) was installed. It rotated at a speed of one revolution per four minutes, using a clockwork
pulley-weight system. The device had one Carsel
lamp with four concentric light sources and a Fresnel lens
. The lamp consumed 0.5 kilograms (1.1 lb) of rapeseed oil hourly, and the fuel pump was powered by the same clockwork mechanism. It was said to be visible up to 27 nmi (50 km; 31.1 mi) away. A team of seven serviced the lighthouse, with one required to be near the light at all times.
The counterfort with the staircase was roofed with wooden boards and tin sheets in 1869. A telegraph installation and rescue stations were established near the lighthouse in the same year; the first-established worked until 1898 when it was replaced by a telephone.
A new light system was bought at the 1900 Paris World Fair
, for three million gold ruble
s. The new apparatus (including the light chamber) was made by Sautter, Marlé & Co. It used a kerosene lamp
with a gas mantle
. A heavy cast iron system floated and rotated in a bath of mercury
, which acted as a bearing. The bath contained roughly 500 kilograms (1,102.3 lb) of mercury. The poisonous mercury from the lighthouse was used for decades by children in the surrounding villages for playing.
The light system was set in rotation by a suspended 400 kilograms (881.8 lb) load; it needed to be rewound every two hours. It was installed during repairs of 1901.
In 1939, the lighthouse underwent major repairs for its anniversary. As part of those renovations, the tower was painted with high quality oil paint
, which became the main contributor to the deterioration of the tower in subsequent decades – thick waterproof layers of paint did not allow the limestone to dry. The mortar began to deteriorate rapidly.
The lighthouse was connected to the electricity grid in 1940. German bombers targeted the lighthouse in August 1941, though only the lantern structure and optical system were destroyed.
After World War II
, various optical systems were tested. Kohler
generators were installed in 1949 along with the stationary electric light system. A new rotating light system (EMV-3) was installed in 1963, making the lighthouse fully automated. It was in use until 1982, when an experimental EMV-930M system (made in Ukraine
) was installed. The rotation mechanism of the optical system is a novel solution – there are no electric motors; it uses a revolving magnetic field
instead. The optics brought a six to eight hundredfold increase to the efficiency of the light radiated by a 1 kW quartz lamp. The same light system is still in use.
Due to the progressing deterioration, the lighthouse underwent frequent repairs. Major repairs were in 1957, 1970, 1979–1981 and a major overhaul in 1982. The walls crumbled partially during the 1980s. To stop the deterioration, a 15 centimetres (5.9 in) thick reinforced concrete
dress was built to support the foundation and walls (1989–1990). Small air channels were left in the concrete. The top of the lighthouse was renovated in 2001.
Due to its enduring popularity and memorable shape, it is often used as a symbol of Hiiumaa. A major tourist attraction, the tower has been open for tourists since 1999. Together with the nearby Ristna lighthouse, the Kõpu lighthouse was commemorated on a postage stamp in 2000.
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
n island of Hiiumaa
Hiiumaa
Hiiumaa is the second largest island belonging to Estonia. It is located in the Baltic Sea, north of the island of Saaremaa, a part of the West Estonian archipelago. Its largest town is Kärdla.-Name:...
. It is one of the oldest lighthouse
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....
s in the world, having been in continuous use since its completion in 1531.
The lighthouse marks the Hiiu sandbank and warns ships away from the shoreline. Light from Kõpu Lighthouse can be used for navigation as far as 26 nmi (48.2 km; 29.9 mi) away, although in 1997 a radar lighthouse largely took over its role as navigation aid.
Kõpu Lighthouse was previously known under its Swedish
Swedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
name, Upper Dagerort lighthouse.
Design and location
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
.
Kõpu Lighthouse has the shape of a square prism, with massive counterforts in the directions of principal divisions of the compass. The tower is laid solely of stone up to the height of 24 metres (78.7 ft). The outside layer of the walls is supported by lime mortar, with the body itself built without mortar.
The body of the tower contains roughly 5000 cubic metres (6,539.8 cu yd) of stone, with its total weight reaching 12000 tonnes (26,455,471.5 lb). Local limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
and glacial erratic
Glacial erratic
A glacial erratic is a piece of rock that differs from the size and type of rock native to the area in which it rests. "Erratics" take their name from the Latin word errare, and are carried by glacial ice, often over distances of hundreds of kilometres...
stones were used as building material.
Originally, the base of the tower was solid stone without any rooms; the top of the lighthouse was reached using external wooden stairs, which were later replaced with iron ones. During reconstruction in the 1800s, a stairway was cut into the tower and has remained in use since.
Construction of the original tower
The most important East–West shipping lane in the Baltic SeaBaltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
passed the Hiiu sandbank. Already before the year 1490 the Hanseatic
Hanseatic League
The Hanseatic League was an economic alliance of trading cities and their merchant guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe...
merchants were seeking permission to mark this peninsula with an outstanding landmark. Around 1490 they asked the bishop of Bishopric of Ösel-Wiek
Bishopric of Ösel-Wiek
The Bishopric of Ösel–Wiek was a semi-independent Roman Catholic prince-bishopric in what is now Saare, Hiiu and Lääne counties of Estonia.The bishopric was created as a state of Holy Roman Empire on 1 October 1228, by Henry, King of the Romans...
to let them build a landmark on the Kõpu peninsula which was under the bishop’s control. This action had no real results.
At a meeting of the Hanseatic League
Hanseatic League
The Hanseatic League was an economic alliance of trading cities and their merchant guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe...
in Lübeck in 1499, they applied once more to the bishop for permission to build a beacon. On 20 April 1500 Bishop Johannes III Orgas (John Orgies) agreed to allow a massive stone pillar without any openings. To cover the building costs, Tallinn city council had to establish a special lighthouse tax until the sum was complete.
Building of the beacon was supposed to start in the summer of 1500, but the building was stopped when Wolter von Plettenberg
Wolter von Plettenberg
Wolter von Plettenberg was the Master of the Livonian Order from 1494 to 1535 and one of the greatest leaders of the Teutonic knights. He was an important early Baltic German....
, master of the Livonian Order
Livonian Order
The Livonian Order was an autonomous Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order and a member of the Livonian Confederation from 1435–1561. After being defeated by Samogitians in the 1236 Battle of Schaulen , the remnants of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword were incorporated into the Teutonic Knights...
, started a war which lasted until 1503. In the spring of 1504, purchase and delivery of the building materials began, but in the autumn of the same year the plague broke out, stopping the work once more. Building work was discontinued and alderman Lambert Ottingk, the magistrate
Magistrate
A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...
in charge of the building, died in Tallinn on 28 December 1505.
The account ledgers of Tallinn city council contain entries about the Kõpu lighthouse from 1507 to 1533, showing money was spent on the beacon of Hiiumaa from 13 May 1514 until 12 October 1532. The amounts show the majority of the work took place from 1514 to 1519; later there are only a couple of bigger expenditures on the beacon. A fire was first lit in the autumn of 1531; it was simply a bonfire on top of the tower.
The 20 m (65.6 ft) high and 8 m (26.2 ft) wide tower was visible on a clear day up to 20 kilometres (12.4 mi) offshore.
Reconstruction and rebuilding
In August 1649 a wooden staircase was built to the outside wall of the tower and an open iron fire grate affixed to the top. Originally it was planned to burn coalCoal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
in the lighthouse, but due to high transport costs of coal, wood was used instead.
The fire consumed up to 1000 cords of firewood every year during the 180-day navigation period, a quantity so great that it led to deforestation of most of the Kõpu peninsula. A team of six was on guard every night, but storms extinguished the fire often. A rule passed in 1652 decreed that the fire must be strong and a fathom
Fathom
A fathom is a unit of length in the imperial and the U.S. customary systems, used especially for measuring the depth of water.There are 2 yards in an imperial or U.S. fathom...
(~2 yards (1.8 m)) high.
Count Axel Julius De la Gardie
Axel Julius De la Gardie
Axel Julius de la Gardie was a Swedish Field Marshal and was appointed Governor-General over Estonia.Axel Julius was the son of military commander Jacob De la Gardie and Ebba Brahe. He became colonel of an infantry regiment and a cavalry regiment and in 1684 he attained the rank of major general...
bought the island of Hiiumaa
Hiiumaa
Hiiumaa is the second largest island belonging to Estonia. It is located in the Baltic Sea, north of the island of Saaremaa, a part of the West Estonian archipelago. Its largest town is Kärdla.-Name:...
from the King of Sweden for 38,000 thalers and took over management of the Kõpu lighthouse in 1659. He had its height extended to 35.6 m (116.8 ft) and the wooden stairs replaced with an iron staircase. The light, now visible from as far as 24 kilometres (14.9 mi) away, was lit one hour after the sun set and extinguished one hour before sunrise.
The Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
took over the administration of the lighthouse in 1805. Major reconstruction of the tower began in 1810. A stone staircase was cut to the southern counterfort plus a room large enough for a team of six men. Into the upper part they made two subsidiary rooms, one on top of the other, and another, the topmost room, 35 metres (114.8 ft) from the ground, was for the lanterns. The lantern room housed twenty three oil lamps, using silver-plated brass reflectors. The lamps burned hemp oil
Hemp oil
Hempseed oil is pressed from the seed of the hemp plant irrespective of the strain of cannabis. Cold pressed, unrefined hemp oil is dark to clear light green in color, with a pleasant nutty flavor. The darker the color, the grassier the flavour....
, requiring 3.28 tonnes (7,231.2 lb) yearly.
In 1845, a crack in the upper part of the lighthouse called for extensive reconstruction, which saw part of the tower pulled down and rebuilt. The tower now gained its final height: 36 metres (118.1 ft). A wooden structure with lamp-chimneys was built for the lantern and its optical devices.
The lighthouse came under navy control, and the first maintenance rules were laid down. The fire was to be lit and extinguished in strict accordance to sunrise and sunset. In cloudy weather lighthouse keeper
Lighthouse keeper
A lighthouse keeper is the person responsible for tending and caring for a lighthouse, particularly the light and lens in the days when oil lamps and clockwork mechanisms were used. Keepers were needed to trim the wicks, replenish fuel, wind clockworks and perform maintenance tasks such as cleaning...
s were to consult a calendar for the necessary data. At that time, the fire was kept burning nightly from 1 July to 1 May – 10 months of the year.
As part of his naval reforms, Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaevich of Russia demanded modernization of the Kõpu lighthouse, in 1859. In May 1860, a novel gyratory device (manufactured by Le Paute in Paris) was installed. It rotated at a speed of one revolution per four minutes, using a clockwork
Clockwork
A clockwork is the inner workings of either a mechanical clock or a device that operates in a similar fashion. Specifically, the term refers to a mechanical device utilizing a complex series of gears....
pulley-weight system. The device had one Carsel
Carcel burner
The Carcel lamp was an efficient lighting device used in the nineteenth century for domestic purposes and in France as the standard measure for illumination....
lamp with four concentric light sources and a Fresnel lens
Fresnel lens
A Fresnel lens is a type of lens originally developed by French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel for lighthouses.The design allows the construction of lenses of large aperture and short focal length without the mass and volume of material that would be required by a lens of conventional design...
. The lamp consumed 0.5 kilograms (1.1 lb) of rapeseed oil hourly, and the fuel pump was powered by the same clockwork mechanism. It was said to be visible up to 27 nmi (50 km; 31.1 mi) away. A team of seven serviced the lighthouse, with one required to be near the light at all times.
The counterfort with the staircase was roofed with wooden boards and tin sheets in 1869. A telegraph installation and rescue stations were established near the lighthouse in the same year; the first-established worked until 1898 when it was replaced by a telephone.
Twentieth century
Exposition Universelle (1900)
The Exposition Universelle of 1900 was a world's fair held in Paris, France, from April 15 to November 12, 1900, to celebrate the achievements of the past century and to accelerate development into the next...
, for three million gold ruble
Ruble
The ruble or rouble is a unit of currency. Currently, the currency units of Belarus, Russia, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria, and, in the past, the currency units of several other countries, notably countries influenced by Russia and the Soviet Union, are named rubles, though they all are...
s. The new apparatus (including the light chamber) was made by Sautter, Marlé & Co. It used a kerosene lamp
Kerosene lamp
The kerosene lamp is a type of lighting device that uses kerosene as a fuel. This article refers to kerosene lamps that have a wick and a tall glass chimney. Kerosene lanterns that have a wick and a glass globe are related to kerosene lamps and are included here as well...
with a gas mantle
Gas mantle
An incandescent gas mantle, gas mantle, or Welsbach mantle is a device for generating bright white light when heated by a flame. The name refers to its original heat source, existing gas lights, which filled the streets of Europe and North America in the late 19th century, mantle referring to the...
. A heavy cast iron system floated and rotated in a bath of mercury
Mercury (element)
Mercury is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. It is also known as quicksilver or hydrargyrum...
, which acted as a bearing. The bath contained roughly 500 kilograms (1,102.3 lb) of mercury. The poisonous mercury from the lighthouse was used for decades by children in the surrounding villages for playing.
The light system was set in rotation by a suspended 400 kilograms (881.8 lb) load; it needed to be rewound every two hours. It was installed during repairs of 1901.
In 1939, the lighthouse underwent major repairs for its anniversary. As part of those renovations, the tower was painted with high quality oil paint
Oil paint
Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of particles of pigment suspended in a drying oil, commonly linseed oil. The viscosity of the paint may be modified by the addition of a solvent such as turpentine or white spirit, and varnish may be added to increase the glossiness of the...
, which became the main contributor to the deterioration of the tower in subsequent decades – thick waterproof layers of paint did not allow the limestone to dry. The mortar began to deteriorate rapidly.
The lighthouse was connected to the electricity grid in 1940. German bombers targeted the lighthouse in August 1941, though only the lantern structure and optical system were destroyed.
After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, various optical systems were tested. Kohler
Kohler Company
'The Kohler Company is a manufacturing company in Kohler, Wisconsin best known for its plumbing products. Kohler also manufactures furniture, cabinetry, tile, engines, and generators.-History:...
generators were installed in 1949 along with the stationary electric light system. A new rotating light system (EMV-3) was installed in 1963, making the lighthouse fully automated. It was in use until 1982, when an experimental EMV-930M system (made in Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
) was installed. The rotation mechanism of the optical system is a novel solution – there are no electric motors; it uses a revolving magnetic field
Magnetic field
A magnetic field is a mathematical description of the magnetic influence of electric currents and magnetic materials. The magnetic field at any given point is specified by both a direction and a magnitude ; as such it is a vector field.Technically, a magnetic field is a pseudo vector;...
instead. The optics brought a six to eight hundredfold increase to the efficiency of the light radiated by a 1 kW quartz lamp. The same light system is still in use.
Due to the progressing deterioration, the lighthouse underwent frequent repairs. Major repairs were in 1957, 1970, 1979–1981 and a major overhaul in 1982. The walls crumbled partially during the 1980s. To stop the deterioration, a 15 centimetres (5.9 in) thick reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. It was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 and patented in 1867. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is...
dress was built to support the foundation and walls (1989–1990). Small air channels were left in the concrete. The top of the lighthouse was renovated in 2001.
Current status
Kõpu Lighthouse only lost its important role as a primary navigation aid in 1997, when a radar lighthouse took over its duties. Recreational craft and small fishing vessels continue to rely on Kõpu for navigating, as a backup to electronic navigation systems. The Estonian Maritime Administration still classifies it as an active aid to navigation. Its future is ensured by its status as a protected cultural memorial.Due to its enduring popularity and memorable shape, it is often used as a symbol of Hiiumaa. A major tourist attraction, the tower has been open for tourists since 1999. Together with the nearby Ristna lighthouse, the Kõpu lighthouse was commemorated on a postage stamp in 2000.