Christiansø Lighthouse () is located on the top of the Store Tårn tower on the Danish island of Christiansø, some northeast of

Bornholm Bornholm () is a List of islands of Denmark, Danish island in the Baltic Sea, to the east of the rest of Denmark, south of Sweden, northeast of Germany and north of Poland. Strategically located, Bornholm has been fought over for centuries. I ...

in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

. Constructed and brought into service in 1805, it is one of Denmark's oldest.

History

The lighthouse was designed by Poul de Løvenørn (1751–1826) in 1798. It was the first lighthouse in Denmark to have a flashing light, apparently inspired by the Swedish lighthouse at

Marstrand Marstrand () is a seaside locality situated in Kungälv Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 1,320 inhabitants in 2010. The town got its name from its location on the island of Marstrand. Despite its small population, for histo ...

, completed in 1781, the first in the world with a flashing light. In 1798, Løvenørn was authorized to go ahead with his project which consisted of building the lighthouse on the top of the existing tower known as Store Tårn. As a result of various delays, it was not until 1 October 1805 that the lighthouse with a height of was brought into service."Christiansø"
''Danske fyrtårne''. Retrieved 3 November 2012 Christiansoe

Technical details

The lighthouse consisted of nine parabolic gilded copper mirrors with a diameter of 4 ft, divided into three groups with a four-wick

oil burner An oil burner is a heating device which burns #1, #2 and #6 heating oils, diesel fuel or other similar fuels. In the United States, ultra low sulfur #2 diesel is the common fuel used. It is dyed red to show that it is road-tax exempt. In most ma ...

located in the focal point of each group. Each group was mounted on a horizontal wooden arm projecting from a vertical axel driven by clockwork. The lamps were rotated by clockwork adjusted so that there were three flashes a minute. The oil lamps remained in operation until 1879 when a lens system with a four-wick burner was introduced. In 1904, the burner was replaced by a paraffin lamp. In 1973, the

Fresnel lens A Fresnel lens ( ; ; or ) is a type of composite compact lens (optics), lens which reduces the amount of material required compared to a conventional lens by dividing the lens into a set of concentric annular sections. The simpler Dioptrics, d ...

from the decommissioned Hyllekrog Lighthouse was installed.

Structure

With a height of , the white-painted round tower with a greenish lantern and gallery stands on the top of the granite Store Tårn fortification. With a range of 18

nautical miles A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( of a degree) of latitude at the eq ...

, the light flashes once every five seconds."Lighthouse Christiansø"
Leuchtturmseiten.de. Retrieved 3 November 2012.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Christianso Lighthouse Listed buildings and structures in Denmark Lighthouses completed in 1805 Towers completed in 1805 Bornholm Lighthouses in Denmark 1805 establishments in Denmark

History

Technical details

Structure

See also

References