An outstanding gift to Neringa, her residents and guests: Red Kristupas can be seen again on Urbas Hill. That was how the first lighthouse of Nida, standing before the end of World War II, was called.

As Neringa celebrates the year of lighthouses, Monika Urbonaviciene, a methodological teacher of art at Neringa Art School, developed the layout of Nida's first lighthouse. From the Jonine weekend, this layout can be seen on Urbas Hill, where the original beacon stood.

The old lighthouse would have turned 150 this year, but at the end of World War II it was blown up by a German army as a strategic object.

The ancient lighthouse layout developed by Mrs Urbonaviciene is amazing in detail: the mystic is made up of the silhouettes of visitors to the beacon at the time, and the so-called “wings” of the beacon invite us to explore local history and maritime traditions. The Red Kristupas motioned ships, with “lateral antennas” installed at the top of the Nida lighthouse around the end of the 19th century. As the Neringa Museum introduces, it was a construction that allowed the lighthouse, when he received a telegraph announcement of an upcoming storm, to display appropriate flags on it. Because of these “antennas,” Curonian Lagoon fishermen lovingly called him a beacon with wings.

The old Nida Lighthouse has a 1:15 scale and a height of 1.80. As Mrs Urbonaviciene said, in order to maintain proportions, it was first necessary to make drawings. This part of the work was the hardest, and it was necessary to revive the mathematical knowledge for accuracy.

Lighthouse layout production took about two months because the entire creative process took place before the end of the school year, a time free from school.

For the production of inspiration and knowledge layout, Ms Urbonaviciene searched the Internet and found it in her interviews on the Nida lighthouse with the historian Dr. Nijole Strakauskaite, the publication of the local historian and journalist Denisas Nikitenka, and elsewhere.

Vaidas Norvilas, a specialist at the Neringa Art School, contributed to the construction of the layout, and Laimonas Markuščenko helped the lighthouse to shine.

The first to see the lighthouse was amazed at Ms Urbonaviciene meticulous work and attention to details.

Neringa Municipality information.

Photoes by Andrius Kundrotas.