The lighthouse

Before the lighthouse tower was built, one used to keep a fire burning in an open cauldron out on the point. The cauldron was raised on a long wooden beam.

Sweden’s first lighthouses were built in the 17th century in response to the demands of the Hanseatic trading league for greater security at sea. Already then, the building of a lighthouse on Ölands southern point was suggested, but back then many people subsisted on the flotsam and jetsam that the sea provided! It was considered to be the people’s right to take care of the remains of shipwrecks. Therefore the locals showed no great interest in constructing a lighthouse.

It took its time coming, but the building of the tower began in 1784, probably by Russian prisoners of war among others. It was constructed not just as a warning sign but as a landmark showing the way in towards land, visible from far away. The limestone blocks for the lighthouse were taken from the medieval chapel of St. John that stood on the point. The height of the lighthouse is 41.6 metres.

The remains of St. John’s chapel as it looks today.

During the spring and summer, the lighthouse was extinguished.
The coal-fire of the lighthouse was covered in 1822. It was also then that the lift mechanism was installed. There are 197 steps up to the platform at the top.
In the middle of the 19th century, colza oil replaced coal as the fuel. Colza oil is produced from oilseed. At that time an advanced lens was installed.

At the end of the 19th century kerosene was introduced. The current lens was installed in 1906. At the same time a coloured window was installed for a secondary light in the middle of the lighthouse.

The lighthouse was automatized in1948. Its official name is simply Ölands Southern Point, but it is called “Långe Jan” (“Tall Jan”). It is Sweden’s tallest lighthouse and was until 1962 also the highest in Scandinavia, when the lighthouse on the southern tip of the Danish island of Bornholm was built.

Founded: 1785
Height of light: 41m over sea level
Electrified and Automatized: 1948

The last lighthouse keeper left his post in 1980.

Sources: Swedish Maritime Administration; Handbook of the Swedish Lighthouse Society.