|
|
Uudised (18): 
|
Kõpu tuletorn
Tahkuna majakas
|
|
|
|
|
Reigi kirik
|
Hiiumaa Eiffel » History
|
First tradition of a tower on these lands, to my knowledge, is from the year 1915 - my aunt, born in 1905, told me that she had climbed it when she was 10 years old. It was during the Tsardom of Russia and the tower belonged to boarder guard cordon. The cordon was a large two storey building with full basement. To this day only thing, that partly remains, is the foundation. The logs for our home are from that same building and even the place is named Kordoni. Even more time ago Otto von Ungernsterbergs great-uncle had a false lighthouse on the same spot where our house is to lure ships on the reefs. About 300 meters from here is a place, where the murdered seamen are buried. The place is under protection of national heritage and named Kabelimägi, locally called Kaplimägi. From my childhood I remember that the archeologysts found a lot of bones and sculls from there. When they left, a lot of the findings where left behind and we could play with them and even take some sculls home.
The first tower I built was finished in september 1978. I was then 17 years old and the tower was for watching cows from Kõrgessaare collective farm. The collective farm provided materials and towers height was 17,5 meters. The collective farm had authorized it but we had forgotten national security. Soon the authorities came and ordered the structure to be taken down. A while later some men from Tallinn came and a KGB major personally climbed the tower to see if Sweden is visible. He was a large fat guy and while climbing down hes overcoat got stuck. He had to undress up there. He ofcourse did not like that because his subordinates stood below. When he finally got down he became milder and said: "Ladna - pasmotrim!" ("Ok - well see!"). Even then it took several months to get the confidence that the tower will stand. That tower stood there for 9,5 years and had to be taken down after that because the stairs were not safe anymore. Right after that I made a new tower and it took me few months. After all, it was a few meters higher than the one before. Lifetime of that tower was about 10 years and it had to be taken down in 1997. Those days nails were hard to come by, so I used the same nails on both towers. Contrary to professors expertise nothing happens to thick nails so I even used them to build a 2,5 storey house. That house even withstood the worst storm we ever had here in january, 2005 (43m/s). Both towers were seen by own people and locals from Viskoosa, Lauka and Kärdla. If I remember correctly even the current parish mayor has been on one of the earlyer towers. If I had constructed the next tower right avay, there would not have been any problems, because nobody would have noticed the switching of the towers. They are quite similar in shape and structure and the old building permit would have been valid. Even the present tower stood nearly a year before somebody noticed.
Jaan Alliksoo
|
|
|
|
