The Castle of Ayora was built probably in the mid-13th century, after the Reconquista, on the site of an ancient Arabian fort. The architectural ensemble was composed of the four-storey residence-palace, two fortified towns, and one large keep, as well as other rooms for the soldiers and serfdom, aljibes (European Middle Ages castle cisterns that collected the rain water to provide drinking water to the castles) and gardens. This was surrounded by around 1,000 m of defensive walls and defensive towers.
The castle was reduced to ruins by the troops of Philip V of Spain, in the War of the Spanish Succession, but its profile and its vast size are still noticeable. The keep, of square plan, the Puerta Falsa (Fake Door), commissioned by the Marchioness of Cenete in the 16th century on which it was her coat of arms, as well as paintings, defensive walls, buckets, moats, and cisterns, stand out in the remains of the castle.
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.