St Donat's Church, Cowbridge, United Kingdom

St Donat's Church is a Grade I listed church in Welsh St Donats. Records of 1180 describe the church as a chapel confirmed to the Abbey of Tewkesbury. By 1563 it was known to have served as a parish church for the community. In 1603 it was considered to be a chapel of the church at Llanblethian, but by 1764 it received a stipend from Queen Anne's Bounty and was described as a curacy.

The church was re-plastered in 1996; during this process, the church was stripped of its old coat of plaster, leaving the entire structure bare to stones and mortar. This became an opportunity to do further dating on the building by examining the old mortar. It was thought that the church was constructed some time in the 15th to 16th centuries. but it became apparent that the windows and doors from that time frame were inserted into older walls by examining the mortar. A chancery wall gave evidence of having two lancet windows at one time; this was an indication that at least this portion of the building was constructed in the 13th century.

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Bengtskär Lighthouse

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.

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Bengtskär Lighthouse