Lighthouse · 1857
Viirelaid lighthouse
The islet of Viirelaid off Muhu was once called Paternoster, Latin for 'Our Father', and so was its lighthouse until names were Estonianised in the 1930s. A wooden tower to engineer Gordon's design stood here from 1857, and the present one, from 1881, is believed to be Estonia's oldest metal lighthouse. Its flashing light was worked like a clock: weights wound up on a shaft slowly sank and turned a screen around the lamp, and to give them room to fall a shaft was sunk two metres into the stone foundation. Part of that mechanism survives. After the Second World War the battered tower was wrapped in a concrete shell.
Open it on the map See the spot on the old maps and as it is today
Eesti keeles
Muhu lähedal asuvat Viirelaidu kutsuti varem Paternosteriks (ladina keeles „meie isa“) ja sama nime kandis ka tuletorn, kuni nimed 1930. aastatel eestistati. Alates 1857. aastast seisis siin insener Gordoni projekti järgi ehitatud torn, praegust 1881. aasta torni peetakse aga Eesti vanimaks metalltuletorniks. Vilkuv tuli töötas kellamehhanismi põhimõttel: võllile vändatud raskused vajusid aeglaselt alla ja pöörasid lambi ümber ekraani, ning et neil oleks kuhu langeda, süvistati kivivundamenti ligi kahe meetri sügavune šaht. Osa mehhanismist on alles. Pärast Teist maailmasõda kaeti vigastatud torn betoonkestaga.