Porkkala Lighthouse

About

Porkkala Lighthouse (Finnish: Porkkalan majakka, Swedish: Porkala fyr), also known as Kallbåda or Porkkala Kallbåda, is a lighthouse located in the municipality of Kirkkonummi, Finland, approximately 9 kilometres (4.9 nmi) from the southern tip of the Porkkalanniemi peninsula, in the western part of the Gulf of Finland.

The lighthouse was built in 1920, to replace the earlier Porkkala-Rönnskär one.

Porkkala-Kallbåda was the last lighthouse in Finland to be intended for manual operation by lighthouse-keepers. For this reason, and due to the small area of the skerry it is built on, the lighthouse design incorporates integral accommodation and service facilities for two operators and their families, similar to those found in the Bengtskär Lighthouse.

It is built on massive reinforced concrete foundation, and constructed of red brick.

After the Continuation War, the Porkkalanniemi area was placed under the control of the Soviet Union. When the area was returned to Finland in 1955, the Porkkala-Kallbåda lighthouse was found to be in such state of disrepair as to be uninhabitable, and it was instead automated and operated remotely from Harmaja in Helsinki. The lighthouse building is now leased to the Finnish mountaineer Veikka Gustafsson.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)。Photography via Wikimedia Commons.