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Russia’s last lightship opens for tourists

Irbensky, the last surviving lightship in Russia, arrived in Kaliningrad from St. Petersburg after repair works and is moored at the World Ocean Museum

© Vitaly Nevar/TASS

KALININGRAD, December 15. /TASS/. Irbensky, the last surviving lightship in Russia, was open for visitors in the westernmost city of Kaliningrad on Friday.

The lightship arrived in Kaliningrad from St. Petersburg after repair works and is moored at the World Ocean Museum.

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On the edge of Eurasia: Far Eastern lighthouses

"Irbensky has become a new tourist attraction of Kaliningrad," said Inessa Zaikovskaya, the museum’s spokesperson.

The lightship was built in Finland in the late 1950s to assist navigation in a strait linking the Gulf of Riga with the Baltic Sea. The Irbensky’s light mast is more than 17 meters tall, and its beacon can be seen at a distance of about 28 kilometers.

In 1985, the Irbensky was replaced with a lighthouse and was later stationed in the port of Lomonosov near St. Petersburg.

In 2014, the lightship was donated to the World Ocean Museum, which already owns several museum ships.

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