[7] The body of the tower contains roughly 5,000 cubic metres (6,500 cu yd) of stone, with its total weight reaching 12,000 tonnes (26,000,000 lb).

[6] The most important east–west shipping lane in the Baltic Sea during the Middle Ages passed the Hiiu sandstone bank.

On 20 April 1500 Bishop Johannes III Orgas (John Orgies) agreed to allow a massive stone pillar without any openings.

To cover the building costs, Tallinn city council had to establish a special lighthouse tax until the sum was complete.

In the spring of 1504, purchase and delivery of the building materials began, but in the autumn of the same year the plague broke out, stopping the work once more.

[9] The account ledgers of Tallinn city council contain entries about the Kõpu Lighthouse from 1507 to 1533, showing money was spent on the beacon of Hiiumaa from 13 May 1514 until 12 October 1532.

In August 1649 an open iron fire grate was affixed to the top of the tower and a wooden staircase was built to its outside wall.

[9] The fire consumed up to 1000 cords of firewood every year during the 180-day navigation period, a quantity so great that it led to deforestation of most of the Kõpu peninsula.

[6] Count Axel Julius De la Gardie bought the island of Hiiumaa from the King of Sweden for 38,000 thalers and took over management of the Kõpu Lighthouse in 1659.

[9] As part of his naval reforms, Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaevich of Russia demanded modernization of the Kõpu Lighthouse, in 1859.

The lamp consumed 0.5 kilograms (1.1 lb) of rapeseed oil hourly, and the fuel pump was powered by the same clockwork mechanism.

A telegraph installation and rescue stations were established near the lighthouse in the same year; the first-established worked until 1898 when it was replaced by a telephone.

The new apparatus (including the light chamber) was made by Sautter, Marlé & Co.[13] It used a kerosene lamp with an incandescent mantle.

[14] The light system was set in rotation by a suspended 400 kilograms (880 lb) load; it needed to be rewound every two hours.

German bombers targeted the lighthouse in August 1941, though only the lantern structure and optical system were destroyed.

[5] During the repairs in years 1978–81 on the occasion of the 450th anniversary of the lighthouse, it was covered with a reinforced concrete shell and perchlorovinyl paint.

By the mid-80s cracks appeared in the surface of the lighthouse and pieces of the cement mortar and smaller stones started falling off.

During the years 1989–90, to prevent collapsing of the lighthouse, a 15 centimetres (5.9 in) thick reinforced concrete shell was built to support the foundation and walls up to the top of the buttresses.