Garpen lighthouse, Sector lighthouse in Torsås Municipality, Sweden.
Garpen lighthouse is a cylindrical concrete tower on the small island of Garpen in the Kalmarsund strait, east of Bergkvara in Torsås Municipality. It stands 27 metres tall with a gallery and a white lantern, and its light shows white, red and green sectors every eight seconds with a range of 16 nautical miles.
An earlier lighthouse stood on this site from 1893, but it was replaced in 1934 by the current concrete structure. This modernization improved navigation safety and reliability in the area.
The island's schoolhouse was finished in 1929 but never held a lesson: the rules on how small a remote school could be changed that same year. The buildings, including the keeper's residence and laundry, passed to the Garpens Vänner association in 1998. The island drew national attention in 2009 through the TV programme Sommar med Ernst.
The lighthouse is visible from the water and its light signals carry across long distances at sea. Visitors should note that the site is remote and is best viewed from the water or nearby vantage points on shore.
The tower produces white, red, and green light signals that change to mark different shipping zones. This sector light system was an innovative way to provide multiple navigation warnings from a single tower.
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