Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The lighthouse of Biarritz, designed in 1825 by the commission of lighthouses and beacons, was built between 1830 and 1834 on Pointe Saint-Martin, 75 metres above sea level. Designed by the engineer Vionnois and architect Augustin Fresnel, it was built by the entrepreneur Sorbee with stones from the Rhune and Bidache. Its total cost was 246 887 francs gold, and it was inaugurated on 1 Feb. 1834 with a first-rate perspective.

In 1904, a new Fresnel lens optics and retro-reflective rings were installed, offering a range of 26 miles (48 km). The lighthouse, which was electrified in 1953 and automated in 1980, underwent architectural changes, including the expansion of its base in 1950. Its internal staircase has 248 steps, and its copper dome is decorated with twelve bronze lion heads.

The lighthouse hosted a dinner at the G7 summit in 2019, bringing together heads of state such as Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump. In 2020, renovation works (€300,000) restored the lantern and its dome, replacing the Plexiglas bays with glass. Filed as a historical monument in 2009, it maintains archives, including 14 plans dated from 1827 to 1861.

The current lens, a 0.70 m focal BBT, works with a 400W halogen lamp. The lighthouse, originally fed with vegetable oil (1834), then mineral (1873) and oil (1904), symbolizes the technological evolution of French lighthouses. Its architecture, a truncated tower on a polygonal base, reflects the successive adaptations to modernise its operation.

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