"The Tower of Hercules is the only Roman lighthouse that, from its origins to the present, has fulfilled its original function: that of serving as a maritime signal and navigational instrument for ships that cross the Atlantic corridor on their journey. This particularity makes it an exceptional example as a unique testimony of the many lighthouses that the civilizations of the past built on the seashore and that, unfortunately, have been lost in the future of history, while the Tower of Hercules continues to comply with the mission of guiding and directing the men of the sea who are faced daily with the immensity of the ocean. The lighthouse was built in all probability in the second half of the 1st century or in the early years of the 2nd century AD. C. by the Roman Empire in the finis terrae of the known world, that is, in the northwest of Hispania, at the entrance of the great Ártabro Gulf that includes the Burgo, Ares and Ferrol estuaries (A Coruña. Spain), to accompany the ships that skirted the westernmost tip of the Empire. The place chosen for its location was a rocky hill, called Punta Eiras, almost 57 meters high, which is located between Punta Herminia and Punta del Orzán, dominating the northern end of the peninsula in which the city of A Coruña. This unique construction has a quadrangular plan of approximately 11.75 m on each side and has a total height of 55 m, of which 34.38 m correspond to the Roman factory and 21 m to the restoration carried out in 1789 to modernize the signaling system. maritime. At present, the Tower stands on a wide polygonal platform 32.40 m wide, which serves as its base and which was built at the beginning of the 19th century. Externally, the monument has a prismatic structure on which an octagonal towered top is arranged with reinforcements of triangular section in the corners, which softens the start of the square base. This first towering body is followed by another, decreasing in height, which serves as the base for the lantern in which the powerful lamp that illuminates the intrepid sailors with its light. The four exterior facades are of great austerity in design and present a homogeneous structure, which is repeated on all fronts, with small variations in the organization of the openings. The sobriety of the architectural language is evident in the use of smooth moldings in the base and in the corners of the four fronts of the prismatic body. The windows with their corresponding dust covers are staggered on the different faces, taking advantage of some of the primitive openings of the inner core, which were standardized to make them symmetrical, although for this it was necessary to alternate the open openings with the blind or false ones. One of the most characteristic features of this lighthouse is the helical fascia that runs through its exterior facades, from the base to the top of the prismatic body, and which is the memory of the ascending ramp that in Roman times served as access to the Tower and which still remained the traces in the walls of the building when in 1789 the restoration projected by the military engineer Eustaquio Giannini began. This molding conditions the distribution of the openings, which will be five pairs of windows on the east and west facades, and four on the north and south fronts. Under these four facades erected in the 18th century are the remains of the Roman lighthouse. A construction that was probably designed by the architect Caio Sevio Lupo, from Lusitania, who left a commemorative epigraph at the foot of the Tower that fortunately is preserved, protected by a small aedicule erected at the beginning of the 19th century, which is located on the platform that serves as the base of the monument. It is really exceptional that we know the name of this architect, of whom we do not know more information but who had to have a direct link with the monument itself because in an engraving of the Tower from the end of the 17th century, preserved in the Archives of the Cathedral of Santiago , the lighthouse and the inscription at its feet are represented, which seems to show that for the men of that time both testimonies were part of the same reality."
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visit link)
Monday, free entry. It is necessary to collect the ticket at the CIAV point of sale.
Schedule
From Mondays to Sundays
From October to May: from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (entry closes at 5:30 p.m.)
From June to September: from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. (entry closes at 8:00 p.m.)