Santa Maria di Novara Abbey was founded in 1137, at the initiative of the same Ruggero II who appointed Basilian monks.
The Cistercian community is abutted on the slopes of the reels in Contrada Sant'Anna with the title of Santa Maria of the Annunciation. The primitive settlement were received only ruins. A place less impervious, on the margins of a water course is identified more downstream, today called Badiavecchia Vallebona.
In 1172 the monastery came under the jurisdiction of the Cistercian Order as the daughter of the Abbey of Santa Maria della Sambucina, located in Calabria in the Municipality of Luzzi.
In 1784 the religious community of the abbey moved to Roccamadore, probably due to the suppression of the monastery wanted by the Bourbons. The abbey went early in ruin.
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.