Sweden

My son Mark and I went to Sweden in June of 2023 to celebrate Midsomar with our cousins. We all traveled to Gotland beforehand, and Mark and I traveled down the coast to Kalmar, Karlskrona, Helmsjo—there we found the house where my grandmother was born—and finally to Malmö.

Fårö Lighthouse lies on the island of Fårö just north of the big island of Gotland. It was built in 1847 and initially called North Cape Lighthouse. Height is 30.3 meters (100 feet). I sat on a large rock in the water to make this sketch.

När Lighthouse is named for the village of När on the southeast coast of the island of Gotland. It’s a sweet lighthouse situated within a stone wall all around the grounds, a duplex keepers’ house, and storage buildings within. The 16.3 meter (53 foot) cast iron tower was built in 1872 and originally had a third order Fresnel lens with an oil lamp.

The 1846 Hoburg Lighthouse sits on a 35 meter (115 foot) hill at the southern tip of Gotland Island in the Baltic Sea. When I arrived to make a sketch, I was greeted by a white-bearded volunteer who wanted penger—ten Krona—for a climb up the lighthouse. I’d learned the word penger from my Swedish grandmother who lived with us in the 1950s, but I had only plastic today. Thankfully one of our Swedish cousins bailed me out and even staked me funds to buy Svenska Fyrsällskapets, a guide to Swedish lighthouses. The climb to the lantern room of the lighthouse was well worth it. There a first order Fresnel lens with three bullseyes rotated around and around. Other lighthouses I’d visited had a stationary Fresnel lens, but more often the lens was missing, perhaps in a museum. The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1978.

Section through Hoburg Lighthouse, Gotland.

These two little lights greeted us as we made our way into Visby harbor aboard the ferry from Nynäshamn.

On our way from Stockholm to Kalmar, Mark and I stopped for an outdoor lunch at Västervik. I sketched while enjoying the best hamburger ever.

In Kalmar we walked from our hotel to the Kalmar Slot or Castle. We were a little ahead of schedule, so I had time to draw this little cylindrical lighthouse.

In 1677 the first Ölands Södra Udde (south cape) Lighthouse was a swing light with a coal fire. Designed by Carl Cronstedt and built in 1785— probably by Russian prisoners of war—the present 41.6 meter (136 foot) tower is known as Långe Jan, Long John, the tallest in the Nordic Countries. The open coal fire on top was enclosed in 1822 and a coal elevator installed. However, in 1962 Denmark built a taller one, the 47 meter (154 foot) Dueodde Lighthouse on Bornholm Island in the Baltic southeast of Sweden’s Skåne län.

The other Long John I know is Long John Silver the antihero in Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous novel Treasure Island. Robert is the most well known member of the famous Stevenson clan which designed and built lighthouses all over Scotland in the 1800s.

After leaving Long John, we drove up the east coast of Öland to find the 1883 Segerstad Lighthouse. After finally locating the road out to the lighthouse we were stopped not only by a gate but also by a herd of (not shown) cows. We drove on… Segerstad means place of victory, and for the cows it was.

The lighthouse in Karlskrona is on an island and can be seen from the main part of town. No doubt it has a name, but it’s not listed in the Svenska Fyrsällskapets. It flashes five reds then a pause.

This is another no-name lighthouse located adjacent to the Maritime Museum on Stumholmen Island in Karlskrona. The other one is in the background.

The last of the Karlskrona lighthouses is also on Stumholmen Island. It’s not presently a lighthouse, but perhaps it was.

Malmö has had a lighthouse since 1822. The delightful Malmö Inre Lighthouse was built in 1878 and sits right in the midst of things, walkable from the old town. Although no longer in service, it does exhibit an incandescent light.