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Location | Offshore, mouth of the Weser River German Bight |
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Coordinates | 53°51′18″N8°04′45″E / 53.855°N 8.079167°E |
Tower | |
Constructed | 1885 |
Foundation | steel caisson basement |
Construction | cast iron |
Height | 28 metres (92 ft) |
Shape | tapered cylindrical tower with balcony and lantern |
Markings | tower with horizontal white and red bands, black basement, lantern and roof |
Operator | Förderverein Leuchtturm Roter Sand [1] |
Heritage | kulturdenkmal |
Light | |
Deactivated | 1986 |
Focal height | 24 metres (79 ft) |
Roter Sand is a lighthouse in the North Sea, in the Weser estuary. It entered service in 1885. [2] The light was deactivated in 1986 but the tower still serves as a day beacon. Roter Sand Lighthouse was the first building ever to be erected directly on the sea floor. [3]
Including the foundation, Roter Sand Lighthouse is 52.5 metres (172 ft) tall. At low tide, it measures 30.7 metres (101 ft) above sea level. [4] Its focal height is 24 metres (79 ft) above mean high tide, while the tower as such is 28 metres (92 ft) tall. [5] [1]
The foundation is cylindrical and protrudes 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in) from the sea at low tide. The tower above is conical. It is painted with red and white bands above a black base. [1] The order of colours is white-red-white-red-white whereby the coloured section also marks the five floors inside the tower. The entrance is located at the lower rim of the lowest white band.
The basement serves as a storage. A stairway leads from there to the sleeping room. Further up is the kitchen with a coal-heated oven, and a living and service room. The latter has three oriel windows, two of which have the same height as the room itself while the third one leads even higher. The oriels used to host minor lights and point towards North-west, South and North-east. From the service room, a balcony around the lantern can be reached via a stairway. However, it is not possible to walk all around the lantern because the higher oriel window blocks one part of the balcony.
During the 1940s, the rooms used to be different with the inside of the black sector being accessible as storage. At the entrance level, there used to be the equipment for the generation of electrical power.
Day trips to the lighthouse, from Bremerhaven via the vessel Lev Taifun, can be taken in June, July, and August. Staying overnight is also possible. [6]
On 1 October 2010, the structure was awarded the title "Historical Monument of Engineering in Germany" (Historisches Wahrzeichen der Ingenieurbaukunst in Deutschland) by the Federal Chamber of Engineers. [7]
The Weser is a river of Lower Saxony in north-west Germany. It begins at Hannoversch Münden through the confluence of the Werra and Fulda. It passes through the Hanseatic city of Bremen. Its mouth is 50 km (31 mi) further north against the ports of Bremerhaven and Nordenham. The latter is on the Butjadingen Peninsula. It then merges into the North Sea via two highly saline, estuarine mouths.
The Alte Weser Lighthouse is located offshore from the estuary mouth of the river Weser in the German Bight, southern North Sea. It was built on sand between 1961 and 1964. The lighthouse took over duties and replaced the historical Roter Sand Lighthouse on 1 September 1964. The latter had been built from 1883 to 1885.
The Skerries Lighthouse was first lit on the highest point of the largest island in The Skerries, Isle of Anglesey after 1716. A patent for the lighthouse was subsequently obtained in 1824. The builder was William Trench, who lost his son off the rocks and died in debt in 1725. He is said to have originally been allowed a pension from the Post Office, rather than payment from shipping tolls. An act of 1730 allowed his son-in-law, Sutton Morgan, to increase the dues charged for shipping and confirmed the patent on the light to Morgan's heirs forever.
The Bremerhaven Lighthouse, also known as the Simon Loschen Tower or Loschen Lighthouse, is the rear light of a pair of leading lights at the New Harbour of Bremerhaven, Germany. It is the oldest operative lighthouse on the mainland along Germany's North Sea shore and is counted among the city's landmarks.
Scilla Lighthouse is an active lighthouse in Calabria just opposite of Capo Peloro Lighthouse which is on the Sicilian coast; both lighthouses direct the ships from the north into the Strait of Messina. The lighthouse is settled on the seaward side terrace of the Castello Ruffo di Scilla, in the town of Scilla on the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Olhörn Lighthouse is a small lighthouse on the German North Sea island of Föhr in Schleswig-Holstein.
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Neuland Lighthouse is a lighthouse in the north German state of Schleswig-Holstein on the Baltic Sea coast that was in service from 1918 to 1996. It stands on the western shore of Hohwacht Bay about 1 kilometre north of the village of Behrensdorf.
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Büsum Lighthouse is an active 20th century lighthouse located in Büsum a fishing and tourist town, which lies on North Sea coast of Schleswig-Holstein, in Germany. The current lighthouse is the second to be built in the town, two other separate breakwater lights mark the entrance of the small harbour from the North Sea.
Capo Peloro Lighthouse is an active lighthouse located in Punta del Faro on the Strait of Messina, the most north-eastern promontory of Sicily, settled in the Province of Messina, the place closest to Calabria.
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Isolotto Monaci Lighthouse is an active lighthouse located on the southernmost of some skerries placed 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi) east of Caprera in the Maddalena archipelago in the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Porto Conte Lighthouse is an active lighthouse located on a promontory, halfway on the east side of the bay of Porto Conte, opposite to Capo Caccia Lighthouse and west of Alghero on the Sea of Sardinia.
Capo Cefalù Lighthouse is an active lighthouse located on the promontory of Capo Cefalù under the steep limestone ridge, 280 metres (920 ft) high, named Rocca east of Cefalù, Sicily on the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Capo d'Orlando Lighthouse is an active lighthouse located at the foot of a rocky ridge, north of the municipality of Capo d'Orlando on the Tyrrhenian Sea.
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