BALTIC (PILLAU)

(autotranslated, could have mistakes)

Installed at the very shore of the spit separating the Gulf of Gdansk from Primorskaya Bay, in the south-eastern part of the Baltic Sea, it provides a safe approach to the port of Baltiysk.

Until 1945, this port on the Baltic Spit, founded in 1686 as an outport of the Königsberg fortress (now Kaliningrad), belonged to East Prussia and was called Pillau. The first lighthouse in the southeastern part of the city was built by German engineers in 1813.

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Baltic Lighthouse

It was rebuilt many times, and its light-optical equipment was improved. In pre-war times, the last major reconstruction was carried out in 1902. By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the lighthouse was a red top and a white 32 m high round tower with a cone-shaped roof and two galleries below.

As a result of the defeat of the German enemy group “Semland” on April 25, 1945, Pillau was taken by Soviet troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front. During the retreat, the Germans disabled the lighthouse and destroyed a number of premises.

Since the port of Pillau (renamed Baltiysk on November 27, 1946) became the base for ships of the Baltic Fleet, the lighthouse had to be urgently restored. At first, a temporary fire was lit here, and in 1953, after the completion of the new technical building, the lighthouse was completely restored. The source of fire in the lantern structure was a light-optical apparatus from the German company Tate Mayer. The device was powered by domestic diesel units.

In 1955, an eight-apartment building was built for service personnel, and warehouses were built for storing property and fuels and lubricants. At the end of the northern pier he installed

and nautofon and mounted a radio beacon for radio deviation work.

The employees of the Baltiysk lighthouse service not only the lighthouse itself, but also control the operation of the entire illuminated navigation fence of the port of Baltiysk, the main and additional navigation lights of the outport. Petr Nikitovich Belik worked at the lighthouse for more than 20 years. Under his leadership, the team was repeatedly recognized as the best in the Baltic Fleet.

The lighthouse currently shines a white eclipsing light over a distance of 16 miles. Together with the Front Baltic Lighthouse, which is a white rhombus and a white trapezoid with a black vertical stripe on an openwork tetrahedral tower, it marks the alignment 302.1°—122.1°, leading to the sea channel of the port of Baltiysk.