page_title: Anholt (Denmark)
section_title: Lighthouse
hierarchical_section_title: Anholt (Denmark) / Terrain / Lighthouse
caption_attribution_description: Reconstruction of an old bascule light (Danish: vippefyr) at Skagen, Denmark.
context_page_description: Anholt is a Danish island in the Kattegat, midway between Jutland and Sweden at the entrance to the North Sea in Northern Europe. There are 145 permanent residents as of 1 January 2016. Anholt is seven miles long and about four miles wide at its widest, and covers an area of 21.75 km². Anholt is part of Norddjurs Municipality in Region Midtjylland. Before the 2007 municipal reform, it was in Grenå Municipality.
  The western fifth of Anholt consists of hilly moraine country, while the eastern four-fifths of the island consist of mostly flat raised seabed with some low hills, former wind-blown sand dunes. Only the western moraine hills are inhabited. The eastern part, called "Ørkenen" is treeless; the government has protected the area and permits no building there. The desert has never been ploughed. For this reason the original stone age topography from when the glaciation ceased, at the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago, is still visible in many places. This includes former shorelines inland, consequences of different sea levels over time. The unploughed features of The Desert are unique for Denmark, as well as for this part of Europe.
context_section_description: Dangerous reefs and shoals surround Anholt. Consequently, in 1560 King Frederick II ordered the erection of bascule lights at Skagen, Anholt, and Kullen Lighthouse to mark the main route through Danish waters from the North Sea to the Baltic. Despite the bascule light, on 10/11 November 1716 the 60-gun third-rate HMS Auguste, Captain Robert Johnson, ran ashore on the island of Anholt during heavy weather and was wrecked. Most of the people on her were saved. 
  An ecological consequence of the introduction of the bascule light was the deforestation of Anholt for firewood, resulting in Anholt's "desert".  By the time of the switch after 1600 to imported pit coal, considerable damage had been done.
  In 1785 a 35-meter tower was erected with an open fire. In 1805 a lantern replaced the fire and in 1838 a mirror was added. Then in early 1842 a flashing light replaced the fixed light, and a lightship was towed to a station of the Knobben, off Anholt. Around the mid-19th century there was also a floating light stationed several miles out from the lighthouse, near the end of the several miles long reef. This floating light operated from May to December. Today's tower dates to 1881, at which time an oil lamp replaced the fire. At one time there was also a beacon fire in the middle of the east coast of the island, but that has disappeared. The present Anholt Fyr (lighthouse) belongs to the Danish Maritime Safety Administration and has the status of a protected historical landmark.
caption: Bascule light at Skagen
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