The lighthouse is situated on top of a 69 m hill in the middle of the forested Kõpu peninsula in the western part of Hiiumaa and its light at the elevation of 104 m is visible at the range of 26 nautical miles. The light is produced with the only rotating lantern in Estonian lighthouses and its rotating beam is a characteristic feature that is of particular significance to local communities.

The lighthouse is quite unique with its tetrahedral prism shape and with massive buttresses in the directions of principal divisions of the compass. As such, the lighthouse is an architectural monument unique in its appearance on the shores of the Baltic and a well-known tourist attraction. Kõpu lighthouse is an exception among other lighthouses because it has gone through all the stages from a medieval landmark up to a modern electrified lighthouse.

MILESTONES
1531 – After 26 years of construction, interrupted with war and plague, a 26 m unlit beacon, built of granite and limestone, was erected on top of a hill in the middle of Kõpu peninsula.

~1538 – The height of the tower was increased.

1649 – The beacon was reconstructed into a lighthouse with wooden stairs, winch for hauling up firewood and an iron fire-grate. The lighthouse was operated by local noblemen since then.

1810 – As the lighthouse began to be operated by the state, major reconstruction was started. The tower was renovated and painted white, stairs were cut into the southern buttress and a glassed lantern room was built atop of the lighthouse where 25 oil lamps were installed in three directions with brass reflectors. Only the most landward eastern side remained unlighted.

1860 – A 1st order rotating dioptric lantern was installed in the lighthouse with fixed light being interrupted by a bright flash once in a minute. The device had one lamp of the Karsel system with four concentric light sources. The white lime painted tower had a lantern room with a red cupola.

1901 – The lantern was replaced by a novel rotating dioptric lantern, bought at the Paris lighthouse equipment expo. A mercury bath was used for rotating the optical device and kerosene gas with gas mantle was used for lighting. The light flashed once in every 5 minutes.

1941 – A radio beacon worked at the lighthouse. The lantern room and optical devices of the lighthouse were severely damaged during the war. A kerosene mantle lantern was installed again after repairs.

1946 – An electric lantern was installed in the lighthouse, working on a DC electric generator and batteries. The rotating beam of light was replaced with a flashing one.

1963 – The lantern was again replaced with a rotating one using an AC electric generator.

1981 – A rotating lantern ЭМВ-930М with a 1000 W incandescent lamp with intensity of 1 333 000 cd was installed.

1988-90 – Emergency restauration of the tower to save the lighthouse from collapsing due to deterioration caused by wrong materials used for the previous renovation.

2001 – The lighthouse was automated and equipped with a remote monitoring system.

2002 – Kõpu lighthouse became unmanned due to automation.

2020 – Upgrade of the light system using the existing rotating lens: new LED light source, rotating motor, control and monitoring software, tailor made by Sabik. With intensity of 2 100 000 cd (98 W) it is the world’s most powerful lighthouse light now.

THE EARLY HISORY

Building of the tower

The shallows NW of Hiiuma, historically known as Näckmansgrund, are closely passed by an important international shipping route to and from the Gulf of Finland. Since medieval times lots of ships have perished there during storms, bad visibility or due to navigation errors. While shipwrecks that took place off the coast of Hiiumaa were a source of profit to the local bishop, the Hanseatic merchants interested in reducing the perils of navigation could only draw up and hand in applications to the bishop for building a landmark for aiding the mariners. For almost twenty years the requests remained unanswered.

In 1499 the Hanseatic Assembly (Hansetag) charged Hanseatic town Tallinn with the building of the Kõpu tower. When Tallinn applied for permission to do this, Bishop Johannes Orgies finally granted it on April 20, 1500. But the tower was allowed to be built only as a massive and solid pillar (kenninge), without any openings in it. Tallinn had to bear all the costs and organize the building of the tower, and the armorial bearings of the bishop had to be attached to it to underline the fact that the tower did not belong to the town but to the bishop, as did the land around it.

Letters and account-books in the archives of Tallinn enable one to follow the construction work of the tower.

Although the site had been selected by a representative of Tallinn already in 1499, the work of construction was postponed till the summer of 1504 because of war. In the autumn of that year Hiiumaa Island was stricken by the plague and construction was interrupted for ten years. In the spring of 1514 work began again and was continued every summer up to 1519. The supervisor of the works was town council servant Clawes Duker. Stone-cutters, masons and smiths were hired from Tallinn, the other auxiliary workers were probably local ones. During 1520—1525 no expenditures were made on the tower, but in the spring of 1526, Clawes Duker was sent to complete its construction.

In 1529, the town council applied for permission to make the tower higher, but construction work evidently did not follow. According to the account books, in connection with the tower, accounts were finally settled with Clawes Duker in August, 1532. But completion of the beacon ii Hiiumaa has been mentioned in the resolution of Wolmar Landtag in 25th of February 1532, so the actual time of completion and beginning of use of the tower must be 1531.

Civil war in the diocese for some years interrupted the realization of the plans to make the tower higher, and it was only in January 1538 that the town council came to an agreement with Bishop Reinhold Buxhövden according to which the town council acquired the right to repair the tower and to add to its height in case of need. In return the bishop received the privilege to buy every year 16 lasts of salt duty-free directly from the ships which arrived in Tallinn.

As there are no account-books covering those years, it is not known whether the height of the Kõpu tower was finally increased in 1538 or the next year. But there are no notes about intentions of burning a light at the top of the tower at that time. There is no record of any service personnel or even a watchman. It can be concluded that the Kõpu tower was intended and built as a landmark of the headland. As there were no spy-glasses or field-glasses in those days, the tower was made so massive that even the unaided eye could notice it from a score of miles in clear weather. According to our modern terminology it was a “beacon” but not a lighthouse. The maintenance of such a tower was not very troublesome for the Tallinn town council and therefore one cannot find any corresponding entries in later ledgers either.

Reconstruction into a lighthouse

The beacon on the Kõpu Tornimägi Hill was changed into a lighthouse not before the 17th century when the beacon was again put in order. A proposal to the Tallinn town council on May 10, 1639 suggests that the town council should hire a person to light a fire on the top of the old beacon on autumn nights to show the way for passing ships. The town council was of the opinion that some other towns (Porvoo, Helsinki, Viipuri, Nyen and Narva) should share the expenses involved and turned to them but without any results.

Ten years later, in 1649, the governor of the Estonian province decided to set up lighthouses on the islands of Hiiumaa, Osmussaar and Naissaar with the reference that Christina, the Queen of Sweden, under whose governance Estonia was at that time, wishes to build a lighthouse and a small dwelling on Hiiumaa Island to promote commerce.

The governor sent a merchant from Tallinn to Hiiumaa to inspect the old tower, to consider the possibility of turningit into a lighthouse. The postal service was very slow at the time, especially by sea, and therefore the orders arrived in Hiiumaa with great delay. The governor had wished the lighting period to begin on August 1, and to end at the close of the year, but the construction work had not begun even at the end of August.

In September a wooden staircase was built on the outside of the tower and the upper part of the tower was levelled, an iron fire-grate and a winch were installed. Coal ordered from the Netherlands was late in arriving, but at the beginning of October, six lasts of coal was obtained from the store of the Sõrve lighthouse. In this way the lighting of Kõpu lighthouse could begin in October 1469.

In 1810 the Kõpu lighthouse passed into the possession of the state and its modernization began. A room for six men was cut in the lower part of the tower and an inner staircase was built. A larger opening was also made in the upper part of the tower and it was formed into two rooms one on top of the other and a room for lamps was built on top of them. Mirrors of polished brass were installed and 25 oil lamps were placed in front of them in such a way that light was directed to the sea from three sides and was visible up to 55 versts (over 30 miles) out at sea. The personnel of the lighthouse consisted of a petty officer and six men.

Because of a crack in the upper part of the tower, probably caused by cutting of the rooms in it, some ten metres were broken off and then built up in the spring of 1845. And apparently this was the only major reconstruction of the tower during the 450 years of its existence. The system of lighting, however, has frequently been innovated in accordance with advances in technology since 1810.

Nowadays it is difficult to imagine that the Kõpu lighthouse could meet the requirements of navigators also without any light for more than a hundred years and that in the second half of the 17th century and in the 18th century the lighthouse was on holiday during the busiest period of navigation, i. e. from the beginning of May until the middle of August, and was lit only from March 16 till April 30, and from August 16 till December 31. From time to time these dates were shifted, but the summer interval remained.

If we thus consider the changes in the requirements of seafarers and the development of engineering possibilities to meet their needs, it also becomes evident that the lighthouse of Kõpu with all its peculiarities is a logical product of the development of society. It then becomes comprehensible why it was decided to build the tower on that particular elevation and why it was built in this manner. Nowadays the Kõpu lighthouse is an exception among other lighthouses as it has gone through all the stages from a medieval landmark up to a modern electric lighthouse.

EMERGENCY RESTAURATION 1988-90

During the period of 1978-81, considering the upcoming 450th anniversary of the lighthouse, the Headquarters of Hydrography of the Ministry of Defence of the Soviet Union (which did not have experience with historical buildings built of natural stones) organized major renovation of the lighthouse carried out by the local Soviet military unit, covering the tower with a 20 cm layer of cement mortar and multiple layers of waterproof perchlorovinyl paint. As there was no white colour available, yellow was used.

The paint blocked the way for humidity to escape from the body of the tower and water collecting in the inner surface of the cement mortar, freezing and melting, started do damage the already old and degraded lime mortar. By the mid 80s cracks appeared in the surface of the lighthouse. Pieces of the cement mortar and smaller stones started falling off. In February 1987, 30 m2 of SW corner of the tower collapsed.

In 1988, technical documents for emergency repair were prepared and repair works started by a local company. After opening the tower body it appeared that lime mortar had practically turned to sand and couldn’t hold together masonry of rubble and lime stones. After a working day in September 1988, 60 m3 of the NE corner of the tower collapsed. A thundering sound was heard at 3 km and corner of the technical room left hanging in air. All this indicated that only emergency repairs were not enough anymore.

In autumn 1988, a project for full restauration of the lighthouse was started. Three alternatives were considered – a steel frame, a monolithic reinforced concrete frame, and a self-supported monolithic reinforced concrete shell that follows strictly the existing shape of the tower –, of which the last one was selected as the one least affecting the historic shape of the tower.

In October 1988, after removing the demolished scaffoldings, the western corner of the northern buttress collapsed, so works went on under a constant threat of collapse. A special protective roof was constructed to the scaffoldings that was lifted along with the work front.

In spring 1989, removal of collapsed material and building of foundations for massive reinforced concrete shell started. There was lack of building materials and workers, and most of the work was done by hand. Concrete works started in summer and a 30 cm layer of mortar was placed on the wall, 1,2 m of a height at a time. The required height of the shell was reached in November in extremely difficult working and weather conditions. 250 m3 of concrete was placed as high as up to 30 m almost entirely by hand in less than half a year.

Split granite boulders were exposed in selected locations in the tower wall to make it more expressive. Also ventilation holes were left in their historical locations. To avoid giving the tower a too technocratic and keep it looking more human friendly, straight placement was knowingly avoided when building formwork for the concrete.

In spring 1990, masonry of the upper part of the tower was restored and support patches of steel anchors were painted as well as windows. The tower was covered with three layers of lime paint.

Kõpu lighthouse is the third oldest operating lighthouse in the world, warning against the dangerous offshore shallows NW of the island Hiiumaa that have claimed many lives through the centuries, in use since 1531. The lighthouse is quite unique with its tetrahedral prism shape and with massive counterforts in the directions of principal divisions of the compass. As such, the lighthouse is an architectural monument unique in its appearance on the shores of the Baltic and a well-known tourist attraction.

The lighthouse is situated on top of a 69 m hill in the middle of the forested Kõpu peninsula in the western part of Hiiumaa and its light at the elevation of 104 m is visible at the range of 26 M. The light is produced with the only rotating lantern in Estonian lighthouses and its rotating beam is a characteristic feature that is of particular significance to local communities.

Kõpu lighthouse is the most visited of the twelve lighthouses opened for public in Estonia and it was voted as Estonia’s favourite lighthouse in polls conducted by the EMA in 2018. Tourism is one of the major sources of income for the local communities and Kõpu lighthouse is probably one of the main reasons for sightseers to visit Hiiumaa island.

Repair works were carried out several times in the 20th century to stop the deterioration of the tower. The outer shell was crumbling due to the age of the building and the weakness of the binder, as well as the wrong type of paint used for renovation. Therefore, in 1988-1990 the massive body of the lighthouse was surrounded by a reinforced concrete shell to prevent deterioration of the stone walls.

In 2012 the upper part of the façade was renovated with plaster and lime paint.

As the lighthouse and the four ancillary buildings (generator building, cellar, sauna and lighthouse keeper’s living quarters) are listed as National Cultural Heritage, renovation works have taken place in accordance with the requirements of the National Heritage Board.

The lighthouse keeper´s quarters along with the sauna and the cellar have been privatised. The lighthouse keeper´s quarters are in use as a dwelling house and according to the Heritage Board´s accounts from 2007 in “satisfactory” condition, but they have been renovated. The generator house is in “bad” condition and there are no alternative uses nor renovation plans for the time being. The cellar / fuel storehouse is in “good” condition and the sauna is in “satisfactory” condition.

The lighthouse was the first one in Estonia that was opened to public, in 2002, and it is the most visited lighthouse in Estonia. Opening times are every day from May 1 to September 15 from 10 AM to 8 PM.

There are six information posters near the lighthouse giving an overview of the purpose and history of the lighthouse and some historic context of respective times with illustrative pictures.

The four ancillary buildings of the lighthouse complex are not open to public.