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. Building of the beacon was supposed to start in the summer of 1500, but the building was stopped when Wolter von Plettenberg, master of the Livonian Order, started a war which lasted until 1503. 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. Building work was discontinued and alderman Lambert Ottingk, the magistrate in charge of the building, died in Tallinn on 28 December 1505. 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. The amounts show the majority of the work took place from 1514 to 1519; later there are only a couple of bigger expenditures on the beacon. But as completion of the beacon in Hiiumaa has been mentioned in the resolution of Wolmar Landtag in 25 February 1532 the actual time of completion and beginning of use of the tower must be 1531. Somewhere after 1538 height of the tower was increased. The tower was unlighted for more than hundred years and was visible on a clear day up to offshore. Reconstruction into a lighthouse and rebuilding 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. Originally it was planned to burn coal in the lighthouse, but due to high transport costs of coal, wood was used instead. 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. A team of six was on guard every night, but storms extinguished the fire often. A rule passed in 1652 decreed that the fire must be strong and a fathom (~) high. 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. He had its height extended to and the wooden stairs replaced with an iron staircase.