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Lighthouse of Cabo Vilán

Camariñas, Terra de Soneira, A Coruña

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Spain › Galicia › A Coruña › Terra de Soneira › Camariñas › Lighthouse of Cabo Vilán

Lighthouse of Cabo Vilán

Monument · Camariñas, Terra de Soneira, A Coruña

A lighthouse opened on 15 January 1896, the first and oldest in Spain to operate with electric light, built with pink granite from the Piedra Mayor quarry, on the cliffs of Traba. It replaced an earlier lighthouse, lit in 1854, whose low height left a blind spot over the shoals of the cape; the wreck of the English training ship Serpent on 8 November 1890, with 172 dead, drew international attention and led to the approval in 1891 of a new first-order lighthouse. Its tower raises the light 125 metres above the sea, with a beam that reaches 55 kilometres, above one of the most storm-battered cliff fronts of the Costa da Morte. The site was declared de Interés Nacional (a historic Spanish landscape-protection designation, precursor of today's natural parks) in 1933 for its rocky, rugged character, and today it is also a natural monument.

Photo: Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga) (CC BY-SA 3.0)

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