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The Izzeddin is an Ottoman fortress in Souda Bay, Crete, near the village of Kalami, best known for its role as a prison for political prisoners in 20th-century Greece.
The fortress was established by the then Ottoman governor of the island, Rauf Pasha, in 1872, and named after the son of Sultan Abdülaziz. Already under the Cretan State (1898–1913) it was used as a prison, and continued so when Crete passed under Greek rule, until 1950. It was particularly notorious as a site of imprisonment for political prisoners, especially during the dictatorship of Theodoros Pangalos (1925–26) and the Greek Civil War. Its occupants included Eleftherios Venizelos in 1903 and the deposed dictator Theodoros Pangalos in 1926–28. After 1950 it passed under the jurisdiction of the Hellenic Navy. Today it is a protected landmark and a site for cultural events.
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.