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St. John's Church is the oldest preserved sacred building in Chojnice. The construction of the temple was started in the 14th century, in the place of the old wooden church. The hall church with three aisles, a separate presbytery and tower presents the Pomeranian Gothic style. It was destroyed many times by fires associated with wars, devastated, robbed and persistently reconstructed. During the the Reformation, the church was occupied by Lutherans. After it was recovered and three chapels were added. The latter is the only one preserved to this day. It is the home of the replica of the Beautiful Madonna from the Church of St. Johns in Toruń. Unfortunately, the church failed to preserve its original interior. One of the few surviving elements is the Baroque baptism font in the shape of a goblet from the beginning of the 18th Century. It is made of wood and its lid is decorated with the sculpture of Christ and St. John. The neo-Gothic wooden main altar, which was rescued from a fire, was replaced with a silver altar presenting scenes from the Gospel.
The most recent archaeological work in the church’s crypt revealed several burials from medieval times. One of them can be seen through the glass floor. This was the location of the burial of the great Gdańsk painter, Herman Han, who lived in Chojnice during the final years of his life. His most famous works include the Coronation of the Holiest Virgin Mary, the Holy Trinity and the Assumption of the Holiest Virgin Mary and the Concert of the Angels.
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.