Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

Cap Béar Lighthouse, located 800 metres south-east of Port-Vendres on the Vermeille Coast, is an iconic early twentieth century building. Its first lighthouse, built in 1836, was a 9-metre-high cylindrical tower with a white fixed light located 23 metres above the sea. Abandoned in 1905 because of its often foggy location, it was replaced by a second, more imposing lighthouse, 27 meters high, with an elevation of 80 meters above sea level, equipped with a fire with three white shrapnel every 20 seconds.

The current pyramidal, square-sectioned lighthouse is constructed of exposed stones with angle chains and a superior corbellation. It is accompanied by accommodation for guards and service buildings, carefully decorated: blue opaline walls, pink marble staircase and copper ramp. Automatized and remotely controlled, it houses a differential GPS station. The site, including the lighthouse, its appendices and surrounding areas, was listed as a historic monument in 2012 after registration in 2011. Today it belongs to the state.

The Cape Bear Lighthouse illustrates the technical and architectural excellence of the service of the Lighthouses and Tags at the beginning of the 20th century. Its optics, its mercury tank, and its technical devices (such as the beam) make it a remarkable example of engineering at the time. The interior decoration, with its noble materials such as pink marble and l的opaline, as well as the details such as lions' gules or the entrance mosaic, underline its monumental and prestigious character.

The first lighthouse, lit in 1836, operated with vegetable oil, then mineral around 1875, before being replaced by the second lighthouse in 1905, using oil steam. The latter, still active, has a range of 30 miles and a white light with flashes grouped by three. Its history reflects the evolution of maritime lighting technologies and its crucial role for navigation in the Mediterranean.

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