Beauty and loneliness: top 7 most attractive lighthouses in Russia

President of Pro-Vision, author of the Vinogradov.story community

“Lighthouses are something about beauty and loneliness. Conceived for purely utilitarian purposes, over time they have become romanticized symbols of expectation and hope. And although today their functionality is often questioned, for mariners and travelers lighthouses remain something more than a trivial element of navigation. There are about 250 lighthouses in Russia. I will tell you about the fate of the most interesting and unusual ones below”.

Petropavlovsky, Kamchatka

The history of the Petropavlovsky lighthouse on Cape Mayachny begins together with the history of Kamchatka exploration: already in the middle of the XVIII century, the first wooden blockhouse with a signal light appeared here to guide rare ships to Avacha Bay. And the recognizable striped black-and-white appearance of the Petropavlovsk lighthouse was received in 1897.

The tower is separated from the capital of Kamchatka by 12 kilometers of uphill walk. But both the lighthouse itself and the views from its foot are worth it: from here you can see the “home” Avacha, Koryak and Kozelsky volcanoes, a breathtaking panorama of the Avacha Bay and the legendary Three Brothers rocks.

Petropavlovsky Lighthouse

St. Nicholas Lighthouse Temple, Crimea

The Church-Lighthouse of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the Crimean village of Malorechenskoye is one of the youngest lighthouses in Russia. Built in the mid-2000s, it combined two functions – temple and navigational. There is also a museum function: the church is part of the Memorial to all those who died on the waters.

Thanks to its church decoration and exterior, the lighthouse church of St. Nicholas looks little like classic striped or monochrome towers: its four facades are decorated with four crosses, in which the image of the Virgin Mary and St. Nicholas of Myra is inscribed. However, it is difficult to make a mistake: the tower shape and the lighthouse lantern topped with an Orthodox cross hint that we are looking at a lighthouse.

Lighthouse Church of St. Nicholas

Povorotny, Leningrad Region

The vast majority of lighthouses are located in amazingly beautiful locations – and yet some are luckier than others. One of these lucky ones is the Povorovotny lighthouse, located in the skerries of the Vyborg Bay. It is impossible to get to it by land – you have to charter a yacht and sail.

Due to its modest popularity and inaccessibility there are almost never people on the island where the lighthouse stands. So you can combine your trip with a lonely overnight stay in a crazy beautiful place – surrounded by northern nature with its rocks, sparse pine needles and under the low cozy sky.

Povorotny Lighthouse

Petrovsky Lighthouse, Astrakhan Oblast

Petrovsky lighthouse is much better known as “the lighthouse in the desert” – all because it rises not over the ocean infinity or at least over the inland sea, but over the bare steppe of the Astrakhan region. When the lighthouse was first started to be built (and it was in the XVIII century), the level of the Caspian Sea was much higher – and the need to build a navigation tower was obvious to Peter the Great himself, who ordered the construction.

However, 200 years later the water receded, and the Petrovsky Lighthouse remained an alien element in the middle of the steppe. With the development of social networks, it is experiencing a new wave of popularity: videos from drones capturing the unusual juxtaposition of the lighthouse tower and deserted land are attracting quite a high level of interest among viewers.

Petrovsky Lighthouse

Aniva, Sakhalin

Perhaps the most recognizable lighthouse in Russia today is the Far Eastern lighthouse of Aniva. Erected on Sivuchya Rock near the coast of Sakhalin in the late 1930s, it became a “marvel of engineering” – not Soviet, but Japanese.

After the war Aniva received a new citizenship and until the early 1990s belonged to the military. At the turn of the century the lighthouse switched to nuclear fuel, said goodbye to the lighthouse keeper and, being unattended, began to deteriorate rapidly. For almost 20 years only rare fishing schooners visited Aniva.

Everything changed, again, with the development of social networks: today Aniva is one of the top locations for filming video content. The rugged beauty of nature coupled with the monumental ruin tower attracts thousands of tourists to Sakhalin. Those who dream of seeing Aniva in its current state should hurry up: the lighthouse is about to be closed for reconstruction to restore its historical appearance.

Kronstadt Lighthouse City

Kronstadt is a living monument to fortification and navigation. In its water area there are six lighthouses and a whole scattering of inland navigation marks, including the world’s last functioning wooden lighthouse, the 300-year-old Tolbukhin Lighthouse, which rises on its own island, and the brilliant in every sense Lighthouse of Memory – a memorial tower erected in honor of the heroic sailors of Russia. If this is not enough, you can also visit the House of Lighthouses on Fort Konstantin – the only lighthouse museum in the country.

Lighthouse in Kronstadt

Pillau, Kaliningrad Region

The Pillau Lighthouse is one of the rare examples of a “city” lighthouse tower. You don’t need to go to it “to the end of the world” – just walk along the central streets of Baltiysk. However, in some sense Pillau is really at the end of the world: it is considered to be the westernmost in Russia.

The red and white tower has been lighting the way for ships since 1805, having replaced several less powerful predecessors. And it remains one of the most famous man-made symbols of the Kaliningrad region – replicated souvenirs with the image of Pillau can rival only amber jewelry in popularity.

Pillau Lighthouse