On many old maps Ventė is marked as the most dangerous place – "a true terror for all sailors" – because a dangerous stony shoal stretches along Ventė Cape. That is why a lighthouse has stood on the cape since long ago. The first wooden lighthouse on the tip of Ventė Cape was built as early as 1837. It was lit by an oil lamp. The lighthouse was surrounded by water on three sides. The present red-brick lighthouse was built in 1852 and is now under the Ventė Cape Ornithological Station. The lighthouse is 11 m tall, stands 30 m from the Curonian Lagoon, and its signal is visible from 3.5 km. To protect the lighthouse, the tip of Ventė Cape was paved with stones in 1860. In 1880 a water-level gauging station was set up next to the lighthouse. The lighthouse's signal lamp switches on automatically in the evening and off at dawn. It is powered by alkaline batteries with a constant charger. The Ventė Cape lighthouse is one of the few lighthouses in Lithuania that you are free to climb and look around from. Old iron stairs decorated with original ornate openwork patterns lead to the viewing platform. From the platform you can see Nida and its golden dunes on the Curonian Spit, 12–13 km to the south-west, and Preila, 8.5 km to the west. 3.6 km to the east, the Atmata, the main branch of the Nemunas, flows into the Curonian Lagoon. The Ventė Cape lighthouse is a state-protected technical monument that matters as a striking viewpoint and is now more symbolic, as shipping on the Curonian Lagoon is not intensive. Most often it shows the way to ice anglers in winter.