Santa María la Real Church is one of the most representative works of the Navarre Romanesque. It is built on the site of a Romanesque temple with three bodies from which the apses are preserved. Another Cistercian-style church was added later. The most outstanding part is the main front, with great iconographic wealth, especially the statues-columns, and there are scenes from the Old and New Testaments in the reliefs. The inside of the temple houses a Gothic image of Santa María de Rocamador and the Main Renaissance reredos, by Jorge de Flandes, as well as a Processional Monstrance from the 14th century.
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.