How to live in a lighthouse

(autotranslated, could have mistakes)

Lighthouses, despite their very clear purpose - to show the way to ships, always evoke romantic associations. To this day, they attract hermits, travelers, and even extreme sports enthusiasts. And some people have learned to consider lighthouses as real estate and, of course, make money from it.

Flying into the light

But, before moving on to coastal lighthouses as real estate, I would like to speculate a little about what is so special about them. Why do these lonely towers standing on the sea cliffs attract creative people so much, what thoughts do they evoke?

“In childhood, or rather in adolescence, when all the girls dream of becoming film actresses, I dreamed of being a lighthouse keeper, so that I could be alone with the sea and the sky, so as not to be fragmented myself and so that life would not be fragmented. Probably, at the lighthouse, life goes slower, as it should... The very concept of time has shifted these days, we only know about it that it doesn’t exist,” wrote Ariadna Efron, daughter of Marina Tsvetaeva.

At the same time, Ariadna herself (Alya, as her relatives called her), already in exile in Turukhansk, pooled with her friend through misfortune and was able to buy a small house on the very bank of the Yenisei. It looks like a caretaker's booth. And yet it was not a lighthouse. There was no tower, no lamp or torch at the top and no noble mission - to save ships from wreck. And the childhood dream of him probably remained unfulfilled...

Not only real, but also fairy-tale heroes dreamed of a lighthouse. For example, an entire book by Tove Jansson, “Papa and the Sea,” one of the final books of the Moomin saga, is dedicated to moving to the lighthouse. Something forced the family to leave their cozy home in Moominvalley and move by boat to a lonely rocky island with an abandoned lighthouse without a keeper. Their task was to revive the lighthouse and make it shine again.

As we see, lighthouses are always associated with some kind of internal emotional experiences. It seems that it is at the lighthouses that you can be alone with your thoughts and find yourself.

Resident Caretakers

The easiest way to visit and live at the lighthouse is to find a hotel with the appropriate flavor. By the way, quite often this idea comes to the minds of newlyweds - it turns out to be a very original honeymoon trip!

The largest number of lighthouse hotels are, of course, in the West. For example, in Scandinavia, the USA, Canada, and also in Australia.

One of the most famous hotels in Norway is Molja Lighthouse near the port of Aalesund. You need to get to the hotel by sea, although it’s not far. Most likely, this particular lighthouse hotel is suitable for newlyweds, because it has only 1 room and 1 bathroom, and both rooms are absolutely round. In the Netherlands, a single-occupancy lighthouse hotel is also available for rent in Harlingen.

A hermit's dream is a keeper's house at the Porer lighthouse in Croatia. And the place is heavenly, and the island is small, 2.5 kilometers from the coast near the island of Istria. If loneliness becomes unbearable, you can visit neighboring Croatian villages, and you will definitely need to try the local cuisine and wine.

In French Brittany, the owners of the Phare de Kerbel hotel offer tourists accommodation in rooms with ocean views. The 25-meter lighthouse tower allows you to admire the views. You can find a hotel in the city of Riantek.

By the way, generally, accommodation in such hotels is no more expensive than in average hotels in Europe: about 50-80 euros per night. But, for example, recently in Sardinia, hoteliers “felt the trend” and opened the luxury lighthouse hotel Capo Spartivento with rates starting from 500 euros.

If living in a lighthouse is too extreme for you, and you are interested in them, know that some lighthouses can simply be visited. Many of them now have museums. For example, in the 12th century lighthouse built by La Lanterna in Genoa. By the way, the famous Statue of Liberty in New York is also a former lighthouse. And on Bolshoy Solovetsky Island here in Russia, there is a functioning Church of the Ascension, also located in a lighthouse!

And we will go our own way

But most lovers of unusual holidays find it boring to live in hotels, even if the hotel is a real former lighthouse, preserved from ancient times. Therefore, there are enthusiasts who organize excursions to abandoned lighthouses. Such trips are interesting not only for fans of extreme travel, but also for fans of computer games like Stalker or Fallout.

Before you go on such trips, you need to make sure that the event is safe. Most often, lighthouses are sensitive objects; sometimes they can be associated with the nuclear industry, for example, they are powered by radioactive batteries. And even if they are not used or seem abandoned at first glance, this does not mean that they are completely safe.

Although, needless to say, destroyed or forgotten lighthouses are beautiful in their own way. For example, the Cape St. George Lighthouse in Australia is now recognized as a monument and listed as a cultural heritage site. And one abandoned Danish lighthouse is now completely hidden under quicksand brought in from the sea.

I'll buy a lighthouse! 

It is theoretically possible to buy an old lighthouse and renovate it and then use it as housing or a hotel. You just need to find out on what land the object you are interested in is located. Naturally, an individual will obviously not be able to buy a Ministry of Defense plot. But if the land with the object (lighthouse) was transferred to the municipality, then it may be possible to buy it or rent it.

If it is not possible to buy the lighthouse itself (for example, it is operational), it may well be possible to buy a plot next door.

For example, this is what Dmitry Kartsev, the owner of the boarding house “At the Lighthouse” in the Baltics, 8 km from Svetlogorsk, did: “... Fate decreed that I acquired a small plot of land on the Baltic coast, which, as a Kaliningrader, is dearer to me than all other places - and I have something to compare with, because I went to sea for many years. Here, near the lighthouse, there is a house in which we live, and nearby there is a holiday house, which I called: “At the lighthouse.” Not a hotel, not a guest house, not a holiday home, but a holiday house (a little over 100 sq. m.), in which the comfort of home awaits you.”

So, if lighthouses also attract you, go ahead!

Alevtina Maksimova Owner

Source:www.irn.ru