Tahkuna Lighthouse

(autotranslated, could have mistakes)

Installed on Cape Tahkuna on the northwestern tip of the island of Hiiumaa (Dago). The cape is located at the junction of the Baltic Sea, the Gulf of Finland and the Gulf of Riga. An important sea route passes nearby, connecting the world's largest ports with St. Petersburg, Vyborg, Tallinn and Riga. The lighthouse protects sailors from dangerous shoals located to the east of the island, in particular from the treacherous Hiiumdal Bank.

The decision to build a lighthouse was made by the Ministry of the Navy in 1865 at the suggestion of the director of lighthouses of the Baltic Sea, Vice Admiral Baron B.V. Wrangel. Concerned that the planned construction of a railway from St. Petersburg to Revel (Tallinn) would lead to a rapid increase in the commercial importance of the port of Revel and, consequently, to an increase in the intensity of shipping in the Moonsund area, he believed that it was necessary to take measures in advance to improve the safety of the approaches to Revel Bay, before the completion of the ongoing reconstruction of the Revel port.

One of the measures Wrangel considered was the installation of a lighthouse on Cape Takhkuna. The cape was carefully examined by military hydrographers; the location for the lighthouse was chosen on one of the hills of Cape Tahkuninamo, 35 m from the water's edge.

According to the project developed by the Baltic Sea Lighthouse Directorate, the lighthouse was supposed to “illuminate a safe path for sailors from the Dagerort meridian to Odensholm and provide entry from the west to Moonsund.”

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Source: Beacons of Russia

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on the island of Hiiumaa

Construction: cast iron tower

Height from ground surface: 43 m

Altitude: 43 m

Visibility range: 12 nautical miles

The lighthouse at Cape Tahkuna on the island of Hiiumaa is a tower made in Paris in 1875, the parts of which are cast from cast iron. The Ristna and Tahkuna lighthouses were ordered at the same time. During transportation, they were exchanged and on Cape Tahkuna, which is not very important for navigation, a high lighthouse was erected, the light of which has a long range.

• Lighthouse of Tahkun** - about the same age as Rukhnu, and also metal, but of a completely different shape: a slender tower fifty meters high. This is perhaps the most beautifully located of the existing Estonian lighthouses - on a narrow cape, between forest and wasteland, blown by the north wind. Near the lighthouse there is a small monument in the form of a metal structure with a bell leaning over the sea: it is dedicated to those who died on the ferry Estonia, the local Titanic, which in 1994, with almost a thousand people on board, was sunk by a storm. The current washed floating debris to Cape Tahkuna, including several empty boats. The bell on the monument begins to ring when the wind reaches the same strength as in that ill-fated storm.

Tahkuna Lighthouse is open to visitors.