Estonia FDC on "Suurupi Leading Light Lighthouses"

First Day Cover
首日封
Sobrescrito de 1.º Dia

Estonia

Suurupi Leading Light Lighthouses

Date of Issue : 22 April 2010

The Suurupi Peninsula lies on Estonia's northern coast about 20 km west of Tallinn. On the initiative of Russian Rear Admiral Mordvinov a lighthouse 20 meters high was built on the peninsula in 1760. After some rebuilding, the stone tower received as a glass lantern room. As a result the light stood at 16 meters from the base with a focal plane of about 41 meters. As such the lighthouse stood until 1944. In 1859 another, front lighthouse was built at 1.2 miles from the rear one: a three-storied wooden truncated pyramid with a gable roof. Its focal plane was 15 meters, 11 meters from the base. When German forces withdrew from Estonia in 1944 they set fire to the stone Suurupi lighthouse. Its restoration and reconstruction work began soon: the burned timber ceilings were replaced by reinforced concrete ceilings supported on steel girders, metal stairs were built into the tower and electricity replaced earlier gas in the lantern. Later a cylindrical floor of a narrower diameter was built up top of the stone tower and the lantern room was lifted on the roof. The light now stood at 22 meters from the base with a focal plane of 66-meters as the lighthouse stand on a cliff 44 meters high. In 1971 also the lights of the front lighthouse were switched to electricity. The leading lights mark a shipping lane of 10-meter depth leading west out of Tallinn Bay. The front lighthouse is a white quadrangular wooden truncated pyramid, while the rear lighthouse is a white cylindrical stone tower with a balcony and a black lantern room. In 2009 the front Suurupi light marked its sesquicentennial, while the rear lighthouse marks its 250th anniversary this year.