The castle site in Lipari island has been populated for thousand years, but the current fortifications data mainly from the 16th century. The castle is surrounded by a long wall, built by the Spanish under Charles V domination around the mid-16th century. The enter door leads to a gallery at exit, where an iron shutter was closed, and thanks to the existent trapdoors, boiling oils were poured. The first building to see is the Church of Santa Caterina, already dismissed, built between 16th and 18th centuries, with the cross nave. The castle has other religious structures; between them the Chiesa dell’Addolorata dating back to the 16th century, with a richly decorated Baroque façade; further there is the Chiesa dell’Immacolata built in 1747. In front of the Church of Santa Caterina two wide excavation ditches show the rests of huts dating back the Bronze Age and being a part of a Greek-Roman urban plant. Next to the excavations there is Concordato staircase, built in the 10th century to connect Saint Bartholomew’s Cathedral to the urban center.
References:Towering 52 meters above the sea, Bengtskär lighthouse is the tallest one in Scandinavia. The building started in in 1905 after the shipwreck of S/S Helsingfors and was completed in 1906. The lighthouse was designed by architect Florentin Granholm. On December a special petrol lantern, designed and built in Paris, was brought to Bengtskär and installed atop the tower.
German fleet bombarded Bengstkär in the First World War in 1914. Since the Gulf of Finland was heavily mined, it was not until 1919 that the surrounding seas were declared safe for shipping, that the light was lit again.
After the war the military value of Bengtskär increased as part of the defence system of independent Finland. In Second World War (1941) Soviet Union made a suprise attack to island. After a bloody battle, the small Finnish garrison emerged victorious. Intermittent repairs to the facility continued during the post-war period.