__NOTOC__ The San Cristóbal Lighthouse () is an active

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Ligh ...

on the Spanish island of

La Gomera La Gomera () is one of Spain's Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa. With an area of , it is the third-smallest of the archipelago's eight main islands. It belongs to the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. La Gomer ...

in the Canary islands. The current lighthouse is the second to have been constructed on the rocky headland of Punta de San Cristóbal (Saint Christopher's Point), on the eastern side of the island, overlooking the approaches to San Sebastián de La Gomera, the main port and capital of La Gomera.

Description

San Cristóbal was commissioned as part of the second maritime lighting plan for the Canaries, and is the oldest and principal lighthouse of La Gomera. Construction of the first lighthouse began in 1900 and it became operational in 1903. Designed by the engineer by Juan de León y Castillo, it was built in a similar style to other early Canarian lights, consisting of a whitewashed single-storey keeper's house, with dark volcanic rock used for the masonry detailing. The light was shown from a lantern room at the top of a masonry tower, which was attached to the seaward side of the house, overlooking the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

. It remained in service until 1978, when it was replaced by the new modern tower. The new lighthouse became operational in 1978, and consists of a short, 15-metre cylindrical tower, painted white with a distinctive

daymark A daymark is a navigational aid for sailors and maritime pilot, pilots, distinctively marked to maximize its visibility in daylight. The word is also used in a more specific, technical sense to refer to a signboard or daytime identifier that ...

of a wide red band. Its design is a smaller version of the one used for the

Fuencaliente Lighthouse The Fuencaliente Lighthouse is an active lighthouse at the southern end of the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands. The original lighthouse was built in 1903 and while it still exists it was replaced by the current lighthouse in 1985. It is ...

on the nearby island of

La Palma La Palma (, ), also known as ''La isla bonita'' () and historically San Miguel de La Palma, is the most northwesterly island of the Canary Islands, a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in Macaronesia in the North Atlantic Ocean. La Pa ...

. The clifftop location of the lighthouse means that it has a focal height of 84 meters above sea level, with a nominal range of 21

nautical miles A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( of a degree) of latitude at the eq ...

. The optics consist of a third order

Fresnel lens A Fresnel lens ( ; ; or ) is a type of composite compact lens (optics), lens which reduces the amount of material required compared to a conventional lens by dividing the lens into a set of concentric annular sections. The simpler Dioptrics, d ...

, which has a

light characteristic A light characteristic is all of the properties that make a particular somewhat navigational light identifiable. Graphical and textual descriptions of navigational light sequences and colours are displayed on nautical charts and in Light Lists ...

of two flashes of white light every ten seconds. It is registered under the international Admiralty number D2842 and has the NGA identifier of 113–23812, and is managed by the

Port Authority A port authority (less commonly a port district) is a governmental or quasi-governmental public authority for a special-purpose district usually formed by a legislative body (or bodies) to operate ports and other transportation infrastructure. ...

Santa Cruz de Tenerife Santa Cruz de Tenerife (; locally ), commonly abbreviated as Santa Cruz, is a city, the capital of the island of Tenerife, Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and one of the capitals of the Canary Islands, along with Las Palmas. Santa Cruz has a ...

. The site of the lighthouse at the end of the Camino del Faro (Calle Carretera al Faro) is open to the public, but the tower and buildings are closed

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:San Cristobal Lighthouses in the Canary Islands La Gomera Lighthouses completed in 1903 Lighthouses completed in 1978

Description

See also

References