Lighthouse height: 49.8 m
Beacon height: 50.1 m above sea level
Range: 23.5 nautical miles (around 43.5 km)
Beacon characteristic: 2.5+1.2+2.5+1.2+6.4+1.2=15 s
Geographical location: 54o 14' 42'' N, 15o 52' 30'' E
G±ski Lighthouse was built near a small place of the same name on the middle part of the coastline. It is about 112 m away from the shore, and may be reached by a road from the main road from Ustronie Morskie to Mielno. The seashore here is flat, and the beach is sandy. The lighthouse, which is clearly visible from afar over the surrounding woods, towers in solitude over the surrounding countryside.
Work to erect the lighthouse started in 1876 and finished in late 1877. The building materials were transported by sea and unloaded on a special landing stage jutting out into the sea. The lighthouse started operations on 1st January 1878, and the cost of its construction amounted to 20,600 marks.
The body of the lighthouse consists of three distinct components. The first is the base, on a 5-metre-deep stone foundation. It is a regular octagon in cross-section with sides of 4 m, has a height of 11.4 m and a wall thickness of around 2 m at the bottom. The second section has a cylindrical shape and rises up to a height of around 40 m. The thickness of the walls at the top of the tower is about 1 m. At the top of the body of the tower there is a pavilion in glass and steel covered with a dome-shaped multiple-panel roof which is crested with an ornamental globe. The lantern makes up the third part of the lighthouse, the total height of which amounts to 51.2 m. The design of this lighthouse shows clearly the three fundamental parts all lighthouses are made up of – the lantern with the optical device and beacon in it, the main body of the tower, and the base – which makes lighthouses one of the most complicated navigation facilities structurally.
The way up to the top of G±ski Lighthouse, which has an exterior and interior facing of dark red bricks, leads up 226 steps on a winding staircase. The optical device originally installed in the lantern at the top was a Fresnel apparatus, with a paraffin lamp in it which gave a white light visible up to 18 nautical miles away. Two lighthouse-keepers worked here and lived in the residential house south of the tower. Today the lighthouse is still served by two keepers, and the residential building is home to the keepers and their families, both those employed by the Szczecin branch of the Maritime Authority and those who have retired. Since the end of the Second World War there have already been two generations of keepers looking after this lighthouse.
Diagrams made during an inventory procedure in February 1927 show that an electric light had already been installed by this time. There was an automatically switching-on incandescent gaslight as a reserve. The gas supply, stored in two cylinders in the basement of the tower, was led up the lighthouse in a special internal chimney. 1927 was also the year when the beacon characteristic was changed, to a flashing beam, which was obtained by the use of a special stroboscopic appliance. The stroboscope was mounted over the optical device and it looked like a merry-go-round consisting of three suspended metal plates, each 450 mm wide. It was kept in motion by a clockwork mechanism with a pendulum. As the stroboscope rotated, the metal plates blocked the beam of white light at fixed intervals, giving a flashing effect, with a luminous characteristic of 2+1+2+1+5+1=12 s. (viz. the dark intervals were each one second long, and successive flashes lasted for 2 seconds, 2 seconds and 5?seconds, making up a cycle of 12 seconds and spelling „U” in the Morse code). Today the same stroboscope is still in use, but there is an electric motor to rotate it.
Despite the massive construction, already by 1933 the first cracks were appearing on the west side of the lighthouse, and in the same year brackets were put up as a safety measure. Part of the elevation was given an extra brick bolstering, hence the paler patch in the brickwork on the west side of the wall. During the Second World War G±ski Lighthouse did not sustain very much damage, only the west and middle part of the annular lens in the optical device was broken, while the remaining parts and prism, which were of crystal with an addition of gold, were saved, with only a slight amount of damage. The lighthouse started up operations in 1948 again. At first Russians staffed it; and it wasn’t until 1951 that it was handed over to the Poles.
In 1948 the characteristic was changed yet again, and now there are flashes lasting for 2.5 seconds each and a third of 6.4 seconds, with intervals of 1.2 seconds. The cycle repeats after 15 seconds. The light source is now exclusively electric, with a 1.5 kW light-bulb and a second reserve bulb in a changer mechanism. The lighthouse still uses an unusual, 130-volt power supply, a relic of its pre-war history.
In the 1950’s new cracks appeared on the tower. In 1960 the body of the tower was strengthened with a cement filling applied to the fissures, and the elevation was given a protective coating against atmospheric damage. Around 1964 a substance called olkit was tried as a filler, but it failed to do the job properly. In 1991 the elevation was impregnated with a solution of silicone oil in petroleum and paraffin, which stopped the problems with water seepage – now the water spewn onto the wall just flows down without seeping into the interior. In 1995 the olkit was removed in the middle part of the tower and the missing parts of the brickwork filled in, while a hydrophobic substance was applied to the exterior, which stopped the seepage from rain and snowfall. The lower and upper parts of the tower were treated in a similar way in 1997. The costs of the first stage of the overhaul (in 1995, under the supervision of the Gdynia branch of Urz±d Morski, the Maritime Authority) were 60,580 PLN, and they were covered by a society of friends of the Gdańsk central maritime museum (Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Centralnego Museum Morskiego w Gdańsku). The cost of the 1997 overhaul, which was conducted by the Szczecin branch of the Maritime Authority and continued the work started earlier, was 45,425 PLN, and it was paid by Stowarzyszenie Miło¶ników Latarń Morskich, a Szczecin-based lighthouse enthusiasts’ association which had just been founded in 1996.
The lighthouse is not the only edifice on the shore. It is surrounded by a collection of other buildings which include a two-storey residential house and two agricultural buildings. The west wall of the residential house is covered with a layer of black eternit tiles for protection against the gusty westerlies and the rain. A red brick wall with a double entrance gate on its east side surrounds the group of buildings. The built-up area covers a rectangular plot 45 m by 80 m in size. It holds a collection of historic structures outstanding for their technical, architectural and landscape qualities, which deserve the legal protection due to historic monuments. The group has had a record card made out on account of its architectural significance, but it has not yet been entered in the official register of historic monuments.
Numerous visitors from Germany come to G±ski. Their purpose in coming to this small place is not merely to admire the beautiful view from the lighthouse, but also for the green clay in the local soil. Not many people in Poland are in the know about one of the most ancient therapies, which consists in the application of therapeutic clay. It turns out that the best kinds of clay are to be found in the deep deposits, and that their healing properties vary and depend on the specific chemical composition. There are white clays and red clays, yellow and green clays, but green clay is considered the best. This is precisely the type that occurs in the neighbourhood of G±ski. Polish tourists are sometimes amused to see Germans packing the stuff into plastic bags. Evidently they are not aware of the riches stored away in the soils of G±ski.
Opening the lighthouse to visitors has
turned it into a popular holidaymakers’ attraction and developed a tourist
industry in the area, with numerous bars and restaurants, souvenir shops,
a car park and a few camping sites near the lighthouse. The wide sandy
beach offers an opportunity for a holiday off the beaten track, away from
the noise and hubbub of modern civilisation.