The monastery of Santa María de la Caridad was founded by the Navarrese monarch García Ramírez, who asked the nuns of the French monastery of Favars to come to Navarra. They came to Tudela in 1147 to build the first female Cistercian monastery in Spain, but the bustling life of the river capital was not compatible with their spiritual way of life so soon, in 1157, they fled to the quiet and fertile lands of Tulebras.
The painted altarpiece of the Sleeping Virgin Mary and the painting of the Holy Trinity, by Jerónimo Cósida, belonging to Renaissance mannerism, and also the Virgen de la Cama, an example of baroque dressed images, has a singular iconographic rarity. Apart from the gold and silverwork, choir books and furniture (also on display) do not miss a visit to the adjacent Roman tower, which conserves items of archaeological interest. The exhibition hall is located in the old 12th-century dormitory.
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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.