The wooden church of St. John the Baptist was built in 1791. The church tower was built in 1818. The church was renovated in 1959. The church is based on the construction of a log house, with a tri-point closed-off chancel, built in the Baroque architectural style. The narrow-sided tower originates from 1818, whilst the ridge turret is covered with a gourd-like apex. The church contains a late-Baroque main altar with statues of two bishop saints and paintings of Saints Augustine of Hippo or Zechariah and one of St. John the Baptist.
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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.