Saint Nicholas Church is a small Gothic church where Jean Calvin led services and preached in 1538. The Church no longer functions as a parish church, today it is used by a Charismatic group called 'Renouveau Saint Nicholas'.
The church was built between 1387 and 1454 on the site of an earlier church dedicated to Mary Magdalene. This earlier church, which dated from 1182, was founded by the Knight Walther Spender and had been built on the site of a small Roman fort. The tower with its tapering spire was erected in 1585 . The interior was remodeled during the 17th Century. The façade and the sacristy, which date from 1905, are by Émile Salomon, the architect of the Temple Neuf.
The interior contains remains of 15th Century frescoes. The 1707 organ of the brothers Andreas and Gottfried Silbermann was dismantled in 1967.
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.