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Description

Transport by sea is essential to the livelihood of the country as a whole and increased safety at sea has long been a national priority. Lighthouses are thus an important part of Norway's infrastructure. There are different categories of lighthouses and the biggest and most powerful ones are the so called coastal lighthouses which guide ships from far out on the open ocean to the coast, an example of this is Skomvær Lighthouse on the island of Røst. The next level of lighthouses lead ships through the approach to the coastal shipping lane where the lighthouses again are smaller with shorter signaling reach, Skrova belongs to the latter category. Some lighthouses were first built to just serve during the fishing seasons, but many of these were upgraded to year round service and are now part of the network that secures the coastal shipping lane. The smallest lighthouses signal the approach into harbour.

Before Skrova's lighthouse was built on the islet Saltværholmen in 1922, there was a smaller one on Skjåholmen, which was in use only during the fishing season. This was established already in 1856, but was replaced by a simple permanent light when the new lighthouse was ready.

There have been various reasons for establishing different light stations. The building of Skomvær Lighthouse at the far west of Lofoten was motivated by the timber trade with Archangel in northern Russia. Landegode Lighthouse was mainly built to improve the safety of the coastal liners' voyages, whilst Tranøy Lighthouse was built because of the shipping of iron ore from Narvik. Many lighthouses in Lofoten were built to make navigation safer during the big cod fishing season, and as mentioned above Skrova was one of these.

Skrova fyr