Rönnskär Lighthouse ( Finnish: ''Rönnskärin majakka'',

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

: ''Rönnskär fyr'') is a decommissioned

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...

located south of the

Porkkalanniemi Porkkalanniemi ( sv, Porkala udd) is a peninsula in the Gulf of Finland, located at Kirkkonummi (Kyrkslätt) in Southern Finland. The peninsula had great strategic value, as coastal artillery based there would be able to shoot more than hal ...

peninsula in the western section of the

Gulf of Finland The Gulf of Finland ( fi, Suomenlahti; et, Soome laht; rus, Фи́нский зали́в, r=Finskiy zaliv, p=ˈfʲinskʲɪj zɐˈlʲif; sv, Finska viken) is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland to the north and E ...

. Completed in 1800 while Finland was still part of

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, on the orders of King Gustaf IV Adolf, Rönnskär is one of the oldest extant lighthouses in Finland. It was, however, decommissioned in 1928, following the completion of the nearby

Porkkala Lighthouse 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 from the southern tip of the Pork ...

(that is, Porkkala Kallbåda, as opposed to Porkkala Rönnskär, as this one is sometimes called). Since its decommissioning, Rönnskär has been used mostly as a communications and VTS radar and monitoring facility by the

Finnish Navy The Finnish Navy ( fi, Merivoimat, sv, Marinen) is one of the branches of the Finnish Defence Forces. The navy employs 2,300 people and about 4,300 conscripts are trained each year. Finnish Navy vessels are given the ship prefix "FNS", short for ...

and Coast Guard. The island is designated as military zone which is why there is no public access to the lighthouse. The construction consists of a square

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

base, topped by a round brick tower; the base is natural stone colour (grey), the main tower section painted white. The Rönnskär Lighthouse is part of a milieu designated and protected by the

Finnish Heritage Agency The Finnish Heritage Agency ( fi, Museovirasto, sv, Museiverket), previously known in English as the National Board of Antiquities, preserves Finland's material cultural heritage: collects, studies and distributes knowledge of it. The agency is a ...

as a nationally important built cultural environment (''Valtakunnallisesti merkittävä rakennettu kulttuuriympäristö'').

References

{{Authority control Lighthouses in Finland Buildings and structures in Uusimaa Water transport in Finland Kirkkonummi Lighthouses completed in 1800