Lindesnes Lighthouse

Lindesnes Lighthouse (Norwegian: Lindesnes fyrstasjon) is a coastal lighthouse and museum on the southernmost tip of mainland Norway, the peninsula Neset. It is also the oldest lighthouse station in Norway, first lit in 1655. To avoid confusion with the lighthouse at Skagen in Denmark, it was lit in conjunction with Markøy Lighthouse.

It has gone through several changes since it was built: In 1822, it was refitted with a coal lamp, and in 1854 a new lamp was installed with the current lens. The current cast iron tower was set up in 1915 and fitted with the old Fresnel lens. In 1920 the lighthouse station got its first fog signal, a siren. The fog signal and its machinery is placed in a building beside the tower.

During World War II Lindesnes lighthouse was taken over by the Germans. Being an important watchpoint, the Germans built a small fortress with four guns and, after a while, a radar antenna. The traces from World War II are visible as trenches, tunnels, etc.

In the 1950s the lighthouse station was electrified and the fog signal was replaced with a powerful Diaphone. The fog signal was closed as a navigational aid in 1988, but it is still operational and being used on special occasions.

Lindesnes

Lindesnes (English: the Naze) is a municipality in the county of Vest-Agder, Norway. Lindesnes was created as a new municipality on 1 January 1964 after the merger of the older municipalities of Spangereid, Sør-Audnedal, and Vigmostad.

It is a coastal municipality, with a long stretch of coastline to the south. It also borders Audnedal municipality to the north, Lyngdal to the west, and Mandal and Marnardal to the east. The lighthouse at Lindesnes stands on the southernmost point of the mainland of Norway.

General information

Name

The oldest Old Norse form of the name was Líðandi. That name is derived from the verb líða which means "lead/go to an end" and the meaning is probably just "the end". A later form was Líðandisnes where the word nes which means "headland" was added (related to the English forms ness and naze).

The traditional English form of the name is just the Naze.

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms is from modern times. They were granted on 25 April 1986. The arms show the local lighthouse, the oldest lighthouse in Norway. It was built in 1655 on the headland of Lindesnes.

Lindesnes (newspaper)

Lindesnes is a local newspaper published in Mandal, Norway. It covers central Vest-Agder. It was established in 1889.

It has a circulation of 6,401, of whom 6,211 are subscribers.

Lindesnes is published by Lindesnes AS, which is owned 100% by Fædrelandsvennen AS, which is in turn owned 25% by Schibsted.

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