Lighthouses and Navigation Tower
The smaller of the two lighthouses was built of brick in 1826/27 based on plans by Karl Friedrich Schinkel and taken into service in 1828. It is 19.3 metres high and has a focal height of 60 m above sea level. The rooms of the three-storey tower are used as operating and storage rooms. It is also called the Schinkelturm ("Schinkel Tower"). On 31 March 1905 it was taken out of service. It is the second oldest lighthouse on the German Baltic Sea coast after the Travemünde Lighthouse.
The largest tower was built in 1901/02 right next to the old tower and entered service on 1 April 1905. It is 35 metres high and has a focal height of 75 m above NN. It is made of brick and stands on an octagonal granite base. For 90 years its light source was two arc lamps, but they were replaced in 1995 by a Metal-halide lamp. This, combined with the rotating triple optics, emits 3 flashes every 17 seconds.
The old naval navigation tower (German: Peilturm) was built in 1927 of brick and acted as an marine navigation beacon. From 1911 to 1925, attempts were made - which were ground-breaking for that time - to improve navigation for the Sassnitz-Trelleborg railway ferry, established in 1909, using the emission of radio waves. The foundations of the associated radio operating facility inside the ramparts have survived to this day. The technical facilities of the navigation tower were destroyed, however, in 1945
All three towers were renovated in the early 1990s and are open to visitors. In the old lighthouse, there is now a museum and a branch of the registry office. Marriages may be commemorated here on a small plaque in the ground in front of the tower. The navigation tower is used as an art museum and studio. On each tower there is a viewing platform from which there are unobstructed views of Rügen and especially the peninsula of Wittow. In clear weather you can even see as far as the Danish island of Møn.
Read more about this topic: Cape Arkona
Famous quotes containing the words lighthouses and, lighthouses and/or tower:
“the ocean, under the pulsation of lighthouses and noise of bell
buoys,
advances as usual, looking as if it were not that ocean in which
dropped things are bound to sink—
in which if they turn and twist, it is neither with volition nor
consciousness.”
—Marianne Moore (1887–1972)
“the ocean, under the pulsation of lighthouses and noise of bell
buoys,
advances as usual, looking as if it were not that ocean in which
dropped things are bound to sink—
in which if they turn and twist, it is neither with volition nor
consciousness.”
—Marianne Moore (1887–1972)
“The tower nearest the water gets the moonlight first.”
—Chinese proverb.