Store Torungen Lighthouse
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Store Torungen Lighthouse () is a
coastal 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 the island of
Store Torungen Store Torungen Lighthouse () is a coastal lighthouse on the island of Store Torungen in the municipality of Arendal in Agder county, Norway. This lighthouse, together with the nearby Lille Torungen Lighthouse, mark the entrance from the Skagger ...
in the municipality of
Arendal Arendal () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Agder counties of Norway, county in southeastern Norway. Arendal belongs to the Districts of Norway, region of Southern Norway, Sørlandet. The administrative centre of the munici ...
in
Agder Agder is a counties of Norway, county () and districts of Norway, traditional region in the southern part of Norway and is coextensive with the Southern Norway region. The county was established on 1 January 2020, when the old Vest-Agder and Au ...
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 ...
. This lighthouse, together with the nearby Lille Torungen Lighthouse, mark the entrance from the
Skaggerak The Skagerrak (; , , ) is a strait running between the North Jutlandic Island of Denmark, the east coast of Norway and the west coast of Sweden, connecting the North Sea and the Kattegat sea. The Skagerrak contains some of the busiest shipping ...
through the outlying islands to the mainland town of Arendal. Both lighthouses were built in 1844 with the same specifications, making "twin" lighthouses marking the way to Arendal. The two lighthouses were put on the
coat-of-arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achiev ...
for the local municipality of
Hisøy Hisøy (historically: ''Hisø'') is a former municipality in the old Aust-Agder county in Norway. The municipality existed from 1881 until 1992 when it was merged into the municipality of Arendal in what is now Agder county. At the time of i ...
in which the lighthouses were located. Over time, both lighthouses were replaced, and the only one still standing is the Lille Torungen Lighthouse, although it is no longer in use. The site of the Store Torungen Lighthouse is accessible only by boat. The island and site is open to the public, the tower is open daily during the summers, and the lighthouse keepers house is available to rent for overnight accommodations.


Current lighthouse

The present lighthouse was constructed in 1914 to replace an earlier tower from 1844. The tall tower is white with a red stripe midway up the tower. The round tower is made of
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 ...
and on top there is a light with a 2nd order
Fresnel lens A Fresnel lens ( ; ; or ) is a type of composite compact lens (optics), lens which reduces the amount of material required compared to a conventional lens by dividing the lens into a set of concentric annular sections. The simpler Dioptrics, d ...
. The light sits at an elevation of and it emits one white flash every 20 seconds. The light can be seen for up to . The lighthouse also broadcasts a
racon Radar beacon (short: racon) is – according to ''article 1.103'' of the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) ITU Radio Regulations (RR) – defined as "A transmitter-receiver associated with a fixed navigational mark which, when trig ...
signal (the
morse code Morse code is a telecommunications method which Character encoding, encodes Written language, text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code i ...
letter "T").


History

The original lighthouse was built in 1844. The tall, round, brick tower was white, with a small red stripe around it and a red top. The lighthouse tower was replaced in 1914 with a new tower located a short distance away from the old tower. The old tower was torn down after the new tower was completed. This upset the local residents, so they pushed to prevent its twin Lille Torungen Lighthouse from being torn down too.


Media gallery

Torungen lighthouse outside of Arendal in Norway (2006).jpg, View of the present lighthouse on Store Torungen Store og Lille Torungen fyr.JPG, View of the two lighthouses on neighboring islands Lille Torungen, Hisøy - S-1602U1 053.jpg, Old picture of the Lille Torungen Lighthouse which is identical to the old Store Torungen Lighthouse which originally stood form 1844–1914.


See also

*
Lighthouses in Norway The coast of Norway is long and there have been a total of 212 lighthouses along it, but no more than 154 have ever been operational at the same time. The first, Lindesnes Lighthouse, opened in 1655; the newest Lighthouse, Anda Lighthouse, w ...
*
List of lighthouses in Norway The following is a sortable, but partial list of active and some decommissioned Lighthouses in Norway, lighthouses along the Norwegian coastline. The sequence number follows the convention of listing lighthouses from the coastal border in the sou ...


References

{{authority control Lighthouses in Agder Buildings and structures in Arendal