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Nida Lighthouse

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Unique places
Neringa
Nida Culture and Tourism Information Center "Agila"

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55.305132, 20.995475

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The first lighthouse in Nida began construction in the second half of the 19th century. The hexagonal red brick tower, 27 meters high, rose alongside the greening of the 51.4-meter high Urbo Hill. The biggest challenge of the construction was the shifting sand of the dunes, requiring deep and sturdy foundations that were sunk to a depth of 3 meters. The lighthouse started operating on October 24, 1874. It was accessed by a stone-paved path with two hundred steps, which remain to this day. These steps were laid by French soldiers captured by the Germans in 1870-1871. The old Nida lighthouse housed a Fresnel optical system light apparatus, using mineral oil for its burner. Every ten seconds, it emitted a four-second flash visible 21 nautical miles out to sea. The old lighthouse also served another important function—warning of approaching storms. Side antennas were mounted on the upper part of the Nida lighthouse. This construction allowed the lighthouse keeper to display the appropriate signals—flags—when a storm warning was received by telegraph. The current Nida lighthouse was built in 1953. It is a reinforced concrete cylindrical tower

with horizontal red and white stripes. Its height reaches 29.3 meters. The lighthouse sends white light signals visible 41 kilometers (22 nautical miles) out to sea. Rising 79 meters above sea level, the lighthouse is located about 900 meters from the sea. Like the Klaipėda lighthouse, the Nida lighthouse is listed in the world's light signal books, marked on nautical charts, and described in sailing directions. Until November 2016, the lighthouse operated an old lighting system with six lamps installed. Only one lamp would light at a time, with the next one lighting up automatically when the previous one burned out. The lighthouse optics, made in the 1950s, had become obsolete, and spare parts and lamp supplies were exhausted, leading to the decision to replace it with a more modern system. At the end of 2016, three large LED lights were installed: two emit flashing light signals towards the sea, and one smaller one towards the lagoon. The Nida lighthouse has a unique flashing pattern: two short 0.2-second light signals with a 1.2-second interval, then a 4.2-second interval of darkness, with a total light and dark interval of 5.8 seconds.

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