Lighthouse height: 68 m
Beacon height: 68 m above sea level
Range: 25 nautical miles (around 46,3 km)
Beacon characteristic: 4+1=5 s
Geographical location: 53o 55' 03'' N, 14o 17' 10''
E
The Oder, Poland's second longest river, splits up into three arms, the Piana, the Świna, and the Dziwna, as it flows out into the Baltic. The main shipping channel on this part of the Oder from Szczecin to Świnoujście runs along the northern stretch of the Świna, which separates the adjacent islands of Uznam and Wolin, and with the Piastowski and Mieliński Canals, which were constructed before the First World War.
In the 12th century there was a Slavonic principality, inhabited by the Wolinianie people, in the estuary of the Oder along the Baltic coast. The Wolinianie were traders and built up strong commercial links with many overseas lands. Wolin was the home port where this Slavonic people kept their fleet. Another approach route to this port led along the inlets of the Świna. Already by 1200 the port of Świnoujście ("channel of the Świna") had a fortified keep, as evidenced by the defensive structures along the coast, parts of them still extant, one of the most picturesque stretches of the towns old fortifications lying in the vicinity of the lighthouse.
At a place called Warszów to the east of Świnoujście there is a huge English oak which the locals call the lighthouse-keepers oak. According to the experts, its about 520 years old, and has a girth of around 525 cm. Legend has it that this is the tree where the keepers of the lighthouse at Chorzelino, a settlement to the north of Warszów, would come to take a rest. The "lighthouse" was in fact a big bonfire kept alight on an elevated piece of land which sailors could see from miles away.
In the 17th and 18th centuries the number of ships arriving in the port of Świnoujście dropped owing to neglect and the silting up of the navigation channel along the Świna. The sailors of Szczecin preferred to take the route along the Piana when they sailed out to sea. An endeavour was undertaken already in the times of Duke Frederick, around 1745, to clear the approach channel along the Świna for the Hanseatic city of Szczecin, thereby enhancing the importance of Świnoujście, its entrance port which lies at a distance of some 60 km downstream from Szczecin.
Measures were taken to improve the safety of navigation. A piloting service was established and the navigation channel marked out with a series of buoys and beacons. A further undertaking was the setting up in 1805 of the first beacon here, a construction of wooden planks and a series of mirrors attached to the top of the breakwater. This device is mentioned in R. Burkhardts book Geschichte des Hafens und der Stadt Swinemünde.
In 1828 a steel construction about 13 m high with a beacon on top was put up in the same spot. In 1854 work started on the building of a lighthouse to meet the demand for navigation safety, which was growing year by year. The lighthouse was located at the base of the eastern breakwater. Work on its construction continued for three years, and finally its white beam was first lit on 1st December 1857.
This lighthouse, which is 68 m high, was an admirable achievement in engineering for those days. Today it is still the tallest lighthouse in Poland, the highest of all the lighthouses along the Baltic, and one of the highest in the world.
Its structure consists of a tower in ceramic brickwork with a yellow facing. On the towers north and south sides there is a series of adjacent two-storey residential buildings, in red brick, each containing four four-room flats. The lower part of the tower up to a height of 16 m has an 8.8 m by 8.8 m square plan. Above this height the tower is octagonal in cross-section, and at its very top it is a regular octagon with the lower viewing gallery propped up on it by 24 ceramic brick consoles and surrounded by a brick balustrade with a decorative metal trellis. The position of the lower gallery is at a height of 22.5 m. Above the gallery the tower has a circular cross-section, tapering upwards from an external diameter of 7.4 m to 6.6 m. The internal diameter is constant, at 4m. As you can easily calculate, the thickness of the walls ranges from 1.7 m at the lower gallery level, to 1.3 m at the upper gallery. At a height of 60.9 m the round tower is topped with an upper gallery, which rests on a set of arcaded brickwork buttresses and is encircled with a decorative wrought iron balustrade.
Originally the tower looked somewhat different. It had an octagonal plan and was built in yellow brick with a facing. However the yellow brick turned out to be not weather-proof enough for the local atmospheric conditions, it started to crumble away and fall, constituting a danger to the people in the vicinity of the lighthouse. The external facing was continually being repaired, and in 1886-1899 a major conservation project was carried out. To prevent the disintegration of the upper parts of the walls, a decision was taken to put new facing on the entire structure. Since the bricks used for the old facing turned out to be not resilient enough for the conditions, several years passed on a search for the right facing material. A number of brick types were examined, with sample sections of each in the outer wall. What with the severe atmospheric conditions of then Świnoujście climate, not all of them met the criteria. The final selection was a yellow clinker manufactured by the Skromberg factory in Sweden, and a red clinker from the Zastrow brickyard. Some elements of the moulding were made in granite slabs. In 1902-1903 a general overhaul was carried out, at an expense of 79.5 thousand marks. Sturdy timber scaffolding was raised along the entire height of the lighthouse. The old facing was removed from the top downwards along the tower, and the new facing was put up starting from the bottom of the structure upwards. The new facing had a half-brick thickness, in places coupled with the old wall through an interlocking arrangement of bricks. Since the corner bricks on the octagon turned out to have been weathered the most, a decision was made to change the shape of the tower from octagonal to round. This is the towers present-day shape.
A winding staircase of over 300 steps leads up to the upper gallery. Inestimable numbers of visitors once climbed them in the pre-war years, right until the 1970s, to admire the spectacular view from the top. To the north-west, over the seaside resorts of Ahlbeck, Heringsdorf, Bansin and Zinnowitz, they could see as far as Greifswalder Oie, and in good weather conditions even the chalk cliffs of Rügen Island; to the north-east they could glimpse the steep coast at Międzyzdroje. Before the Second World War Świnoujscie was a holiday resort, and its lighthouse was a source of inspiration for artists. Thanks to their pictures we have a good idea today of how pleasant it was then.
Originally the optical device installed in the lantern was a Fresnel Class I apparatus, with four concentric oil-lamp wicks. The range of this beacon, which was fuelled by rape-seed oil, was 24 nautical miles. In the 1920s the lighthouse was fitted out with an electric power supply for its light source. Currently its cylindrical optical system has a 4.200 W bulb in an exchange device which automatically switches to a second, stand-by light-bulb in the event of the first bulb failing. The beacon characteristic is accounted for by a stroboscopic screening system, made up of a set of four rotating vertical plates in a device like a merry-go round. Formerly the screen was activated by a weight-and-pulley system with a rope passing through an opening in the body of the lighthouse. Every day when the lighthouse-keeper finished his hours of duty he would hoist the weight up, and release it the next time the beacon was lit. Nowadays this system has been replaced by an electric motor. However the bulbs are still as big as they were then their maximum diameter is 20 cm, and 8.9 cm around the screw-on end, with a total bulb length of 42 cm. Świnoujście is the only lighthouse in Poland to emit a red beam alongside the more common white beam. Its red beam is targeted south, to illuminate the Oder navigation channel upstream, which is quite dangerous in this area.
Before the end of the Second World War the Germans ordered the lighthouse-keeper to blow up the lighthouse before the Wehrmacht retreated from Świnoujście. However the keeper did not find it in him to blow up his work-station he must have been very attached to "his" lighthouse to fail to carry out the order. Thanks to this the beautiful structure survived. We know the story from his son, who was born in Świnoujście in 1921, and now lives in the Federal Republic of Germany. He is in regular contact with a former Polish lighthouse-keeper who started his career in Poland's retrieved Territories at Świnoujście and now works in the navigation marker base (Baza Oznakowania Nawigacyjnego) at Świnoujście.
The strange twists of fate which may occur in a single life may be illustrated by the story of one man associated with the lighthouse at Świnoujscie. A Cassubian (Kashubian) by birth, before the First World War he served as an observer, that is lighthouse-keeper, in the German Kriegsmarine. When the War was over and the Polish State was restored, he fought in the Polish Forces against the Red Army in the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-20, and after hostilities ended he was a professional soldier, a non-commissioned officer in the Polish forces. On retiring from the army in the 1930s he took up employment in the Maritime Authority (Urząd Morski) at Gdynia. In 1949, after the Second World War, he was appointed Head of the Office of the Regional Board of the Central Maritime Authority and sent to Szczecin to work for the navigation marker service. In the 1960s he was again appointed lighthouse-keeper at Świnoujście, and worked there until retirement. His professional life started and finished in Świnoujście Lighthouse - a turn of events he certainly could not have foreseen, even in his wildest dreams.
In 1945 the Soviet forces heading west along the 2nd Byelorussian Front to defeat Nazi Germany captured the island of Uznam and Świnoujście (Swinemünde) on 5th May, but it was not until 4th October of the same year that the district of Uznam and Wolin became part of the Polish State. In the intervening period it was part of the Soviet occupation zone of Germany. In 1945 and 1946 the coastal area and port facilities were administered by the Soviet military authorities. However even in the 1960's the Polish staff of the Świnoujście navigation marker base were obliged to carry Russian passes when they crossed the port area on their way to work in the lighthouse. In the evenings they passed the fortress, from where they could hear music and the sound of revelry coming from the entertainment precinct within the military area. In the 1970's, as the city and port of Świnoujście expanded, the fortress was demolished and a project for the construction of a loading berth in the neighbourhood of the lighthouse was embarked on. The demolition gave rise to new cracks in the lighthouse tower. In 1980, when a loading berth for imported chemicals was set up at Nabrzeże Chemików, a close distance from the lighthouse, staying in the vicinity of the lighthouse, not to mention living in its residential part, was made impossible because of the high level of air pollution. The keeper's quarters next to the lighthouse have been uninhabited ever since. The pollution was also causing considerable damage to the facing on the lighthouse tower. An overhaul was indispensable.
The first repairs on the mantle on the lighthouse tower were done by the Gdynia Maritime Authority in 1959, which at the time owned the facility. Large cracks had appeared when the lighthouse was hit during Allied air attacks in 1945, and the repairs involved the application of cement to fill them up, as well as a provisional measure to secure the balustrade of the lower gallery, which was coming off the wall, from falling. In 1971 the Gdańsk Maritime Authority commissioned a marine design and construction company to draft the plans for a general overhaul of the lighthouse and the adjacent premises, but the project was never put into practice.
The condition of Świnoujście Lighthouse was rapidly deteriorating. In 1982 the Szczecin branch of the Maritime Authority, to whose care these navigation facilities had passed, commissioned the Szczecin Technical University to carry out a report on the state of the lighthouse, investigate the causes of the damage, and put forward recommendations for its repair. The results of this report served as the basis for new plans to carry out a general overhaul of the lighthouse. However, at this point - 1992 - a new navigation authority, Biuro Hydrograficzne Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej, was set up in Gdynia, and was to take over the management of the job. The Biuro was in operation only until 1995, and again the job was not done. With another three years lost, the damage was getting worse and worse.
In 1995 the job was returned to, this time by the Szczecin branch of the Maritime Authority, which took over from the Biuro. The survey showed that the lighthouse was in need of an overhaul at least as big as the one done at the beginning of the century, if not even bigger because of the very serious damage to the buildings adjacent to the tower. But again the work couldnt proceed because after the reorganisation of the Szczecin Maritime Authority no provisions were made for this, and it was not until 1997 that another survey was commissioned to determine the needs. It was literally the last possible moment for the lighthouse, which in December 1997 had to have its lower viewing gallery dismantled for reasons of safety. The general overhaul project, compiled by the Szczecin-based Pracownia Projektowa Konserwacji Zabytków, finally started in November 1998.
The project entailed the replacement of the old wooden floors and ceilings in the adjoining buildings by new fireproof structures, roof repairs, the fitting of new doors and windows, the cleaning and restoration of the interior and exterior plasterwork, and the installation of a new water and drainage system and power supply. The repairs on the tower involved the dismantling and full restoration of the upper and lower gallery, the application of new interior Schomburg-Thermopal desalinating plaster, the cleaning of the shaft wall and the filling in of the cracks in the walls, from a height of 22.5 m up to 54 m, and the riveting of the fissures with rustproof braces. Servo-operated window-opening devices were installed in the tower to ensure the necessary safety conditions for fire and smoke prevention. New panes were put up in the lantern and a conservation job was carried on its steel parts and roof, which was also given a new coat of paint. Repair works were also carried out on the machine-house and a redevelopment project was conducted in the grounds, including the laying out of a new paving-stone top surface. The overhaul of the adjoining buildings was completed by EKKO-EX of Szczecin. This companys tender for the job was selected by the Szczecin Maritime Authority on a competitive basis. The total cost of the overhaul was 2,930K PLN (not including the costs of the expertise, design project, and dismantling of the lower gallery).
While the overhaul was still in progress an association of lighthouse enthusiasts, Stowarzyszenie Miłośników Latarni Morskich, put the suggestion to the Szczecin Maritime Authority that they would be willing to organise the tourism in the lighthouse tower and also manage the entire building adjoining the tower. The idea was put forward to open a lighthouse and marine rescue services museum, along with a conference and training centre here.
Currently you can reach Świnoujście Lighthouse via Warszów, by a country road off the main Świnoujście Szczecin road. Take the passenger ferry in Świnoujście, or the passenger and freight ferry at Karsibórz, to the east bank of the River Świna. From Karsibórz head for Warszów via Ognica, and from there on to the lighthouse. In the summer season the lighthouse may be reached by a special riverboat. Road signs for the lighthouse were put up when it opened to tourists (5th August 2000). Today Świnoujście is a favourite local tourist attraction. From the top of the lighthouse visitors view the port and loading area, as well as the picturesque natural vegetation along the coast and estuary.
On account of its original shape, function, and the composition of its elevation along with all the fascinating architectural details, Świnoujście Lighthouse was entered on the Voivodeship Register of Historic Monuments (registration number A-1346), on the grounds of a decision made by the Voivode of Szczecin on 26th July 1997.
Next to Świnoujście Lighthouse there is a fascinating stretch of historic 19th-century fortification lines. Unfortunately, their condition is deteriorating not only owing to the passage of time and atmospheric damage, but also as a result of destruction caused by man - thieves are gradually dismantling them, with the resultant hazard of their imminent collapse in some sections. The lighthouse enthusiasts association which is looking after the facilities on behalf of the tourists has been campaigning to bring the matter to the attention of the municipal authorities of Szczecin. Lets hope that they'll manage to save the site before its too late. If given the right kind of redevelopment scheme, the lighthouse and its environs could be turned into a splendid sightseeing area on the east bank of the Świna, a real attraction for thousands of holidaymakers coming from Poland and abroad to this part of the Polish coast.