Slettnes Lighthouse () is the northernmost mainland

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Ligh ...

on Earth. It is located in

Gamvik Municipality () is a municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Mehamn. The other notable villages in Gamvik include Gamvik and Skjånes. Gamvik is known as one of the poorest and most undevelo ...

Finnmark Finnmark (; ; ; ; ) is a counties of Norway, county in northern Norway. By land, it borders Troms county to the west, Finland's Lapland (Finland), Lapland region to the south, and Russia's Murmansk Oblast to the east, and by water, the Norweg ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. It sits along the

Barents Sea The Barents Sea ( , also ; , ; ) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian territorial waters.World Wildlife Fund, 2008. It was known earlier among Russi ...

approximately north of the village of

Gamvik Gamvik or Gamvika may refer to: Places * Gamvik Municipality, a municipality in Finnmark county, Norway * Gamvik (village), a village in Gamvik Municipality in Finnmark county, Norway * Gamvik Church, a church in Gamvik Municipality in Finnmark cou ...

on the northern coast of the

Nordkinn Peninsula Cape Nordkinn ( or ) at is the northernmost point on the Nordkinn Peninsula in county, Norway. It is notable for being the extreme points of Norway, northernmost point of mainland Norway, and by extension the extreme points of Europe, northernm ...

, within the Slettnes Nature Reserve. The lighthouse is the only

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

lighthouse in

county. This is the easternmost of the three Nordkapp area lighthouses, and it is often considered the North Cape Light, marking the "top" of Europe.

Fruholmen Lighthouse Fruholmen Lighthouse (, former name ''Norskholmen fyr'') is a coastal lighthouse located in Måsøy Municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. It sits on a tiny islet just off the northern coast of the island of Ingøya. History The lighthouse wa ...

is located about farther north, on the island of

Ingøya or is an island on the edge of the Arctic Ocean in Måsøy Municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The island lies just north of the island of Rolvsøya and west of the island of Hjelmsøya. The sparsely populated island is only accessibl ...

, but the Slettnes Lighthouse is the northernmost lighthouse on the mainland of Scandinavia.

History

This lighthouse was built from 1903 to 1905. The round cast iron tower is tall and it is painted red with two white horizontal bands. The light on top emits one long (2.5 sec) white flash every 20 seconds. The light burns from 12 August until 24 April each year. It doesn't burn during the summer due to the

midnight sun Midnight sun, also known as polar day, is a natural phenomenon that occurs in the summer months in places north of the Arctic Circle or south of the Antarctic Circle, when the Sun remains visible at the local midnight. When midnight sun is see ...

. In 1922 the lighthouse got a foghorn with a siren, which gave a signal every thirty seconds, helping in fog and bad visibility. The foghorn could be heard in form of a one to two tone signal with a range of . The fog horn was in use until 1985. The lighthouse was heavily damaged during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

by German troops, but it was painstakingly restored after the war. The restored station was designed by architects Blakstad and Munthe-Kaas and it was completed in 1948. The station is owned by the

Kystverket Norwegian Coastal Administration () is a Norwegian government agency responsible for the water transport infrastructure along the Coast of Norway. It is responsible for coastal navigation infrastructure, pilotage and harbour and port infrastru ...

and managed by Gamvik Municipality as a tourist center, and overnight accommodations are available in the station buildings. In 1998, the lighthouse was listed as a heritage site. The lighthouse was automated in 2005.

Climate

It has a

tundra In physical geography, a tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. There are three regions and associated types of tundra: #Arctic, Arctic, Alpine tundra, Alpine, and #Antarctic ...

climate (

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

: ''ET'') bordering on

subarctic The subarctic zone is a region in the Northern Hemisphere immediately south of the true Arctic, north of hemiboreal regions and covering much of Alaska, Canada, Iceland, the north of Fennoscandia, Northwestern Russia, Siberia, and the Cair ...

(Köppen: ''Dfc'').

Gallery

File:Slettnes lighthouse 08.jpg, Slettnes lighthouse File:Slettnes lighthouse 01.jpg, Slettnes lighthouse File:Slettnes lighthouse 04.jpg, Slettnes lighthouse, stairs

References

External links

View a map on Google street viewslettneslighthouse.comNorsk Fyrhistorisk Forening
{{Authority control Gamvik Lighthouses completed in 1905 Lighthouses in Finnmark 1905 establishments in Norway

History

Climate

Gallery

See also

References

External links