The Håga Mound (Hågahögen) or King Björn's Mound is one of the most magnificent remains from the Nordic Bronze Age. Håga mound is approximately 7 metres high and 45 metres across and it was constructed ca 1000 B.C. by the shore of a narrow inlet of the sea (the land has been continually rising since the Ice Age). It was constructed of turfs that had been laid on top of a cairn which was built on top of a wooden chamber containing a hollow oak coffin with the cremated remains of a short man. During the burial there had probably been human sacrifice, the evidence for which is human bones from which the marrow had been removed.
The coffin contained rich unburnt bronze objects such as a Bronze age sword, a razor, two brooches, a number of thickly gilded buttons, two pincers and various other bronze objects. They may all come from the same workshop in Zealand. The mound was excavated 1902-1903 by Oscar Almgren together with the future king Gustaf VI Adolf. Only minor excavations have been done in the Bronze Age settlement but the area contains several house foundations in stone. The findings from Hågahögen were stored in The Swedish Museum of National Antiquities.
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.