Krevo Castle is one of the oldest Belarus castles and dates from the early 14th century. It is an important place in Belarus because it was the first all-stone castle to be built in the region. The stone walls were 2.5m thick and 13m high. The castle had two towers which guarded the rest of the fortress. Grand Duke Keistut was murdered in the castle in 1381, and in 1385 the famousKrevo Union (between Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania) was signed here.
During the 16th century the Tatars and the Russians tried to capture the castle but it remained intact. By the early 19th century the castle was abandoned and the buildings were mostly destroyed during World War I. Today only the ruins of the castle remain. The perimeter walls can still be seen, but only a few fragments of the towers are still intact. There is a magnificent view of the ruins from the top of nearby Yuryeva Mountain.
Many legends surround the Krevo Castle ruins, including tales of an underground tunnel from the castle to Vilnius, and a beautiful princess who was bricked up alive in the castle walls. There is a pagan temple on Yuryeva Mountain and 1 of 4 amulet boulders, which used to lie at the entrance of Krevo to protect the town against trouble and disease, still remains.
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.