The Rånäs manor (or Rånäs castle) was built in the 1850s by the Reuterskiöld family at the site of a 17th century manor, torn down after the completion of the present manor. Rånäs manor was designed by the leading architect of the time, professor Per Axel Nyström. Rånäs manor had a charter from 1774 for the yearly production of 1500 ship pounds (260,000 kg) of bar iron. In the fields surrounding the manor grain was cultivated and in its wide-stretched forests coal was bunkered. The manor also included a long low row of houses for the families of the workers employed at the manor, a position which was considered lifelong.
Following the 1932 Krueger Crash the manor was sold to the Municipality of Stockholm and used as a mental hospital until 1985. In 1996 the manor was bought by two private individuals and extensively restored. Since 1998 Rånäs Manor has been a hotel and conference center.
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.