Gaillenreuth Castle is situated high above the Wiesent river on its upper western perimeter in the village of Burggaillenreuth. All that survives is the southern part of the hill castle. As well as parts of the outer ward there is a tower house from the post-1632 period.
The castle is one of six that the Bishop of Bamberg, Otto I of Mistelbach (1102–1139), procured for the Bishopric of Bamberg in 1122. Nothing is known of its previous occupants or who built it.
The next record of the castle comes from an appendix to the law book of the Bamberg bishop, Frederick of Hohenlohe (1342–1352). This notes that the Bishop of Bamberg, Leopold III of Bebenburg (1353–1363), paid 100 pounds of hellers to Conrad of Egloffstein for the maintenance of the castle.
Between 1353 and 1359 the castle appears to have been an episcopal fief fully occupied by the lords of Egloffstein, whereby in the course of time, part of the castle became their freehold property. In 1522, Conrad XI of Egloffstein transferred the allodial part of the castle to Bamberg bishop, Georg III of Limpurg (1505–1522), as a fief.
In 1525 the castle was razed during the Peasants' War, but was rebuilt by Conz of Egloffstein. On 8 July 1632, during the Thirty Years' War it was destroyed by Croatian troops. Exactly when it was rebuilt is not known. However, it is possible that only the southern part was rebuilt. In 1638 the lords of Egloffstein relinquished the castle from the episcopal fiefdom through an exchange. The Burggaillenreuther line of the lords of Egloffstein died out in 1682 with John (Hans) Philip II of Egloffstein.
In 1684 the lords of Egloffstein sold their allodial part of the castle to Freiherr Karl Friedrich Voit von Rieneck. In 1810 Anton Joseph Freiherr von Horneck purchased the castle. In 1847 it was described as derelict. A renovation of the surviving buildings was carried out at that time by August Horneck von Weinheim. The castles is now in private ownership.
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.