Salvaterra de Miño has always carried out an important military function because of its strategic location next to the Miño River.
There is hardly anything left of the original 12th century walls that used to protect the castle. The fortress, however, built in the 17th century, still stands, and was refurbished in 2008. As well as many sentry boxes on the walls, other buildings were built such as the Baroque chapel (17th century) of La Virgen da Oliveira and the Casa del Conde house (17th century), with the Doña Urraca caves and double room with a spiral staircase can be found.Inside the fortress, as well as remains of streets, houses and gravestones, we can find the palace or manor house of Doña Urraca, named after the room of Queen Urraca I (1109-1126) during a war with the Countess Teresa of Portugal.
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.