Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Cape Levi lighthouse, located at Fermanville in the English Channel, was approved in 1851 after several shipwrecks, including La Résolue in 1833. Designed by engineer J. de Serry under the direction of Charles-Félix Morice de la Rue, the first lighthouse, a square tower in pink and grey granite (31 m), was completed in 1858 after conflicts with the entrepreneurs Lévesque and then Baude. It connected the headlights of Goury and Gatteville, with an initial lens with white fixed light and red flashes, modernized in 1901 (range 30 km).

During World War II, the Kriegsmarine used it as an observation post before dynamiting it in June 1944. A temporary fire was installed on the ruins pending reconstruction. Architects René Levavasseur and Jean-Paul/Jacques Chauliat designed the second lighthouse (28 m), with curved faces, built in 1947 100 m from the original. On July 1948, it was automated in 1975 and listed as a historical monument in 2009.

The first lighthouse, destroyed, had a semi-cylindrical turret and a corronation in corbellation, while the second, still in service, included an unprecedented glass rotunda on the French coast. Both used local granite (Fermanville rose, Montfarville grey). Their history reflects technical developments (oil → oil → electricity) and the strategic stakes of maritime signage in Normandy.

The lighthouse plays a key role in securing the Cherbourg harbour, an area exposed to the violent currents of the Cap Lévi raz and the Bieroc shoals. Its reconstruction after 1944 is part of the national plan to restore maritime signs, stressing its importance for navigation between the La Hague and Barfleur lighthouses.

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