Punta Paloma Lighthouse

Optical Array Details

• Location: Tarifa, Punta Paloma.
• Coordinates: 36°3.865' N 05°43.190' W
• Signal Type: Sector Light
• Height: 7m
• Light Source: 2-Level, Red & White, VEGA-Manufactured LED Lantern (Mod. VSL73)
• Year: 2015
• Colour: White/Red
• Light & Sound Character: 5-Second Flashes (L: 4, occ. 1)
• Remarks: Square white tower; Red Sector over Los Cabezos Shoals; White Visibility: 010°-340° (330.0); Red Visibility: 340°-010° (30.0)

Map of Location & Visibility

History

The Punta Paloma Lighthouse can trace its history back to 1884, when the first plans were drawn up to build a lighthouse of the 6th Order under the 1858 General Plan for Maritime Signalling of the Coasts, Ports and Adjacent Islands of Spain.

Located 264 metres from the shore and in tandem with a sector of the beam from the lighthouse on Tarifa Island, it was conceived to signal the shipping hazard posed by Los Cabezos Shoals, particularly treacherous to coastal navigation at that time, having caused the shipwreck of several vessels.

The definitive project drawn up by the civil engineer Julio Merello y Alberti in 1890 for the first lighthouse was designed to house keepers’ cottages and a store on the ground floor, with a second structure being a tower upon which the lantern floor would house the optical array itself. The structure itself had already been built by 1894, with a modification to the project having been made by the provincial chief engineer Enrique Martinez. However, the optical array that would beam the lantern’s light (with a focal plane 5m from the ground) was not acquired until years later, meaning that the lighthouse was not put into service until 27th April, 1899.

In 1915, the front of the existing lantern floor was demolished, to be finally replaced by a prefabricated semi-tower and lantern, more in line with contemporary lighthouses, and thus adopting its characteristic octagonal layout.

In 1973, it became automated and in 1997 came under remote control; in 2007, it was deemed convenient to completely abandon Punta Paloma Lighthouse, due to the derelict state of the original building’s upkeep. The Port of Algeciras Bay Authority decided to demolish it completely, opting to support the lighthouse beacon provisionally atop a temporary, 5-metre-high lattice tower, and providing the facility with an adjacent prefab cabin to house the required control equipment and batteries.

The State Ports Department accepted the temporary measure and immediately set out plans for the construction of a new building to house the beacon. Once the Ministry of Defence abandoned the installations on 31st December, 2008, the whole facility was laid siege by vandals: pieces of equipment were stolen that compromised the continuity of the signalling aid to shipping at the time, and it became evident that a new building would be the only solution to safeguard the beacon.

This is how our Port Authority came to draft in 2018 the “Project to Construct a New Lighthouse for Punta Paloma in Tarifa (Cadiz)”, drawn up by Manuel Matoses Rebollo, chief architect of APBA’s Development Department.

Work commenced in November 2019 and were completed a year later, in October. The new lighthouse lit up the skies for the first time on the night of 14th October 2020.

Features

• Located in the heart of the Strait of Gibraltar Natural Park.
• Its job is to signal the hazards of Los Cabezos Shoals in tandem with a fixed red beam from Tarifa Lighthouse.
• It replaces an older lighthouse that had been built in 1895 on the very same spot and was first lit in 1899.
• The architectural idea of the lighthouse arises from an octagonal ground plan that is subject to the actions of the Easterly and Westerly winds that ravage the area. The winds force the octagon’s corners to turn through 10º every 180cm, which creates the rippling effect of a so-called hyperbolic paraboloid.
• Its geometrical shape was chosen due to the fact that the original lighthouse had been octagonal when built at the turn of the last century.
• The lighthouse is built in double-cladded brickwork – both externally and internally – with bricks the colour of local sand.
• It was lit for the first time on 14th October, 2020.

Find out more

If you would like to find out more about this lighthouse, we recommend the following articles:

• "Punta Paloma Lighthouse: Past, Present & Future" [Ojo del Muelle]
• “New Lighthouse at Punta Paloma” [Conarquitectura Ediciones]
• “Punta Paloma Lighthouse: Function over Form. Love at First Sight of La Paloma Pottery” [La Paloma – More than Breaks]
• "Punta Paloma Salvages the Essence of its Lighthouse” [Diario del Puerto]

Visits

Punta Paloma Lighthouse is not currently open to visitors.

Video

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