In 2025, it’s 300 years since Norway’s first Twin Lights were lit at Markøy and Lindesnes. The lighthouse story, however, dates back to 1655, when Povel Hansøn, a merchant resident of Kristiansand, received the Royal privilege to operate a Light at Lindesnes.
The Light would be financed through a lighthouse toll on all seafarers from Bohuslän to Bergen.
It was lit on February 27th, 1656. It was a humble first light of 30 candles on top of a wooden tower. It was supposed to be a coal-burning Light, but they ran out of the necessary coal even during the preparation.
While they waited for a coal supply from England, the candles burned every night until April 10. The light was lit again on August 10, and then it was burning coal that lit up the Southernmost coast of Norway.
Before long, on October 6, Povel Hansøn received a new command from the King: Due to complaints of “invisible lights for the seafarers”, the Light must shut down for the time being. It was dark until 1725.
In 1610, Peder Clausson Friis described the Southernmost Cape like this: «All seafaring folk in this Western Sea knows of this headland, hence, it is the landmark upon which they know to set their course to other lands, and this Naize is the Southernmost place in Norway... »