Category: Lighthouses of the world

Point of Ayr Lighthouse in Wales: an enchanted landscape and a keeper who never left it.

Ivan

We are along the north coast of Wales. As the sun sets and the sea sweeps in across Talacre beach the lighthouse often seems to float on the waves in a mysterious and beautiful optical illusion. Correctly known as the Point of Ayr Lighthouse, but also named “Talacre Lighthouse”, it was originally built in 1776 to help guide ships away from the nearby sandbanks and provide a bearing for the great port of Liverpool to the northeast and mark the Mersey Estuary and the River Dee. Unusually for a lighthouse,…

Read More

The light above Como, Italy: Volta’s Lighthouse dedicated to Alessandro Volta

Anya016

“What the hell a lighthouse doing in the mountains?” tourists are wondering when they arrive at San Maurizio, a hamlet 150 metres above Brunate. The little town, located in the Lombardy region, overlooks Como, which lies on the shore of Lake Como some 500 metres (1,600 ft) below. Como and Brunate are linked by a winding road, and by the Como to Brunate funicular (but this is another story). Alessandro Volta (who developed the first electrical cell) lived in Brunate for a short period. The lighthouse was built in 1927…

Read More

Denmark: Skagen, Sand-Covered-Church, Rubjerg Knude Lighthouse and the Power of nature

Danijel90

Skagen is a town in Denmark located in the region of northern Jutland, in whose area there is Grenen, a sandy strip that extends to the north-east at the point where two parts of the North Sea join. Skagen can be considered a natural pearl, with an environment that has inspired many local artists between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, artists whose works are exhibited among other things in the Skagen Museum, but also many fishermen. In the area there are some suggestive abandoned places, such as the Den Tilsandede…

Read More

Phare de Trézien

Anya016

182 steps face visitors to this 37 meter high lighthouse, with a range of 23 miles. Built in 1894, it stands inland, 500 meters from the shore. Its white beam sends out a long flash every three seconds and short one every second. Guardian of the coastline, it keeps watch over the Iroise sea and the hundreds of boats that cross the Le Four channel. Sailors, guided by its light, entrust it with their lives….. Do you like lighthouses? Visit the dedicated section on our site!

Read More

Pontusval Lighthouse.

Anya016

The savage beauty of the Pays Pagan coastline, known as “Shipwreck Shore”, has long been feared by sailors on account of its granite rocks, strong currents and the tradition sourronding it. For a long time the area was frequented by ships seeking shelter in bad weather near l’Aber-Wrac’h, the Ile de Batz or the port of Pontusval. However, in the 19th century the lighthouses of Ile Vierge and Batz were not visible in heavy fog and strong currents would pull boats towards the Beg-Pol rocks, causing many shipwrecks in the…

Read More

The Roman lighthouse at the medieval castle of Dover is the oldest building in England.

Adam

Dover Castle in Kent is known as the “key to England” for its defensive importance in the last 2 millennia of history. The medieval fortress dates back to the eleventh century and is the largest and most important castle in England. The site may have been fortified already during the Iron Age, long before the Romans attacked Britain (in 43 AD with the emperor Claudius). Such an ancient date is suggested by the form of the embankments unusual for a medieval castle. The archaeological excavations suggest anthropic activities in the…

Read More

Phare du Four

Anya016

The Four channel runs along the end of the Léon and avoids the bypass west of the archipelago of Molène and Ouessant. Shortcut useful but dangerous, it was for a long time very imperfectly indicated. In the early 1860s, the Nautical Commission approved the construction of a lighthouse at each end of the channel and the first recognition took place in June 1862. The “roche du Four”, a granite block a block of granite 25 meters in diameter and a height of 11.50 meters with at the top, is the…

Read More

Île Vierge: the highest lighthouse in Europe.

Anya016

Île Vierge (Virgin Island) is located just 1.5km off the coast, to the north-east of the entrance to the Aber-Wrac’h. Different hypothesis are available about the name of this small island of seven hectares. Probably come from to the difficulty of sustaining plantations on this windswept island? Or from the chapel that was built on the island and dedicated to the Virgin? Or still, is this name related to a Franciscan monastery that was erected in 1440? It is a mistery! In the mid-15th century, the Friars Minor known as…

Read More

Phare d’Eckmühl, France. One of the tallest in the world.

Anya016

The Eckmühl Lighthouse, is located in Penmarc’h, Finistère department, in Brittany region of France. With his height of 65 m, it is one of the tallest lighthouses in the world. It is located at the port of Saint-Pierre, on Point Penmarc’h, on the southwestern corner of Finistère and the northwestern entrance to the Bay of Biscay. His tower was built following a decision on April 3, 1882 to modernize the coastal lighthouses and raise the focal height of the Penmarc’h lighthouse, built in 1835, 60m high. However, engineers said that…

Read More

Cap Fréhel and its lighthouses.

Anya016

Cap Fréhel is a peninsula in Côtes-d’Armor, in France, in the northern Brittany region, which extends from the Côte d’Émeraude to the Golfe de Saint-Malo. Despite no towns or villages are situated on the peninsula (all the undulating terrain is covered in moorland and marshes, which make it difficult to construct any structure), there are two lighthouses, one from the 17th century and the other one from 1950, located at the tip of it. The peninsula is surrounded in the major part by cliffs, which make it difficult to access…

Read More

The natural park of the Po river, and the charm of lighthouses.

Pavel

Probably we should dedicate at least a ten posts to the beautiful but still little known natural park of the Delta del Po. One of its characteristic element is the presence of two lighthouses, which rise in front of the great Delta as they were his guardians. Both are achievable only by boat. The lighthouse of Punta Maistra, known as the lighthouse of Pila too, is located at the mouth of the Busa Dritta, at the end of the “Po di Pila” and is slender and very white. This lighthouse,…

Read More

Capri, Punta Carena and its lighthouse

Pavel

Capri Island have a lot of beaches, but one of the most beautiful is Punta Carena. It’s not really a beach but a bay with clear and blue waters what tossing into huge rocks. What makes this place even more attractive the lighthouse. Punta Carena Lighthouse dates back to 1867 (although it was originally constructed in 1862) and it’s the second brightest of all Italy after the Lanterna of Genoa. The lighthouse has a rotating view that emits white light flashes every 3 seconds. The focal plane is located at…

Read More

Lighthouse in Świnoujście, the highest lighthouse of the Baltic Coast.

Pavel

lighthouse height: 68 m light emitted to the height of: 68m over sea level light is seen at the distance: 25miles/about 46.3km Geographic position: width 53″55’03″N length: 14″17’10″E The Swinoujscie’s Lighthouse (Poland) with its 68m is the highest lighthouse of the Baltic Coast and the fifteenth tallest “traditional lighthouse” of the world. The first lighthouse in this place was built in 1828, and the current structure is from 1857. The cross-section of the entire 1857 tower was octagonal. However, in 1902–1903 the tower was restored to repair some brickwork. This…

Read More

Latarnia Morska Niechorze – Niechorze Lighthouse, Poland

Pavel

Height of Lighthouse: 45m The light ascends to the height of: 62,8 m of the sea level Light Range: 20 nautical miles (about 37km) The decision to build a Lighthouse in Niechorze (in polish Latarnia Morska Niechorze) has been taken in 1860, and was commissioned by the German Ministry of Shipping in 1863. The tower of this lighthouse has been built of face-bricks. In the lower part it has a quadrangular shape and in the upper one above the outhouse an octagan form. The corner of that tower have been…

Read More