Lighthouse of the Week, Dec. 31, 2017 - Jan. 6, 2018: Vinga, Sweden

I was very surprised to find out, when I reviewed my lighthouse postings, that I had only featured two lighthouses from Sweden.  Sweden has a lot of coastline, and thus it also has a lot of lighthouses.  After taking a look at samples, I settled on Vinga -- which like the Donkin Reserve lighthouse in South Africa has a pyramidal structure next to it, and which like both the Robben Island and Galloo Island lighthouses, is on an island.  (Those were the last three Lighthouses of the Week.)

What's that pyramidal structure?  More on that later.

Vinga happens to be one of Sweden's more ancient and venerable lighthouses, as the excerpts below will attest.  It's near Gothenburg (which the Swedes call Göteborg, but they prefer that English-speakers use the English name for the city).

From the Lighthouse Directory:

"1890 (station established 1841). Active; focal plane 46 m (151 ft); two white flashes, separated by 7.5 s, every 30 s. 29 m (95 ft) square granite tower with lantern and gallery; original drum-style Fresnel lens in use. The lighthouse is unpainted stone; lantern dome is gray metallic."

And, importantly:

"Vinga is the traditional landfall light, not just for Gothenburg but for all of Sweden. Along with Skagen Fyr on the Danish side it marks the entrance to the Kattegat and the Baltic for ships arriving from the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean."

It also happens that the 95-foot stone tower is the third lighthouse on the island; the second one is a circular structure that is still there, with a radar antenna on top, but the lighthouse is inoperative. The first one is no longer there, but its foundations are.

This still does not explain the red pyramid with the sphere on top, I know. Well, it's simple, really; the pyramid with the sphere on top is a day beacon -- which is basically something you can see from the water during the day.

Because Vinga is special, below I have four pictures and a video with musical accompaniment. I accidentally organized the pictures with increasingly distant views.

And the video: