The Tower of Hercules (, ) is the oldest known extant Roman

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 ...

. Built in the

1st century File:1st century collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Jesus is crucified by Roman authorities in Judaea (17th century painting). Four different men (Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian) claim the title of Emperor within the span of a year; T ...

, the tower is located on a peninsula about from the center of

A Coruña A Coruña (; ; also informally called just Coruña; historical English: Corunna or The Groyne) is a city and municipality in Galicia, Spain. It is Galicia's second largest city, behind Vigo. The city is the provincial capital of the province ...

, Galicia, in northwestern Spain. Until the 20th century, it was known as the Farum Brigantium. The Latin word ''farum'' is derived from the Greek Φάρος, ''Pharos'', for the

Lighthouse of Alexandria The Lighthouse of Alexandria, sometimes called the Pharos of Alexandria, was a lighthouse built by the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (280–247 BC). It has been estimated to have been at least ...

. The structure stands tall and overlooks the North Atlantic coast of Spain. The tower was renovated in 1791. There is a

sculpture garden A sculpture garden or sculpture park is an outdoor garden or park which includes the presentation of sculpture, usually several permanently sited works in durable materials in landscaped surroundings. A sculpture garden may be private, owned by ...

on the grounds of the lighthouse featuring works by

Pablo Serrano Pablo Serrano Aguilar, (8 March 1908, Crivillén, Teruel – 26 November 1985, Madrid) was a Spanish abstract sculptor. Personal life 1920–1925. Pablo Serrano studied as a boarder in the Escuelas Profesionales Salesianas in Sarriá (Barc ...

and . The Tower of Hercules is a

National Monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a sp ...

of Spain and has been a

UNESCO World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

since 27 June 2009.

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

website
of Hercules
/ref> It is the second-tallest lighthouse in Spain, after the Faro de Chipiona.

Construction and history

The tower is known to have existed by the 1st century. It was built (or perhaps rebuilt) under

Trajan Trajan ( ; born Marcus Ulpius Traianus, 18 September 53) was a Roman emperor from AD 98 to 117, remembered as the second of the Five Good Emperors of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty. He was a philanthropic ruler and a successful soldier ...

, possibly on foundations following a design that was

Phoenicia Phoenicians were an Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syria, Syrian ...

n in origin. The design was based on the original plans of the

. Its base preserves a cornerstone with the inscription , ascribing the tower's design to the architect Gaius Sevius Lupus, from

Aeminium Aeminium was the ancient name of the city of Coimbra, Portugal. The Romans founded the civitas of Aeminium in this place at the time of Augustus, which came under the protection of nearby Conímbriga situated some to the south. The Roman city ...

(present-day

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ), officially the City of Coimbra (), is a city and a concelho, municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2021 census was 140,796, in an area of . The fourth-largest agglomerated urban area in Po ...

, Portugal) in the former province of

Lusitania Lusitania (; ) was an ancient Iberian Roman province encompassing most of modern-day Portugal (south of the Douro River) and a large portion of western Spain (the present Extremadura and Province of Salamanca). Romans named the region after th ...

, as an offering to the Roman god of war,

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

. The tower has been in consistent use since the 2nd century. The original tower was shorter and wider than the current tower, as the surviving core was surrounded by a spiral ramp. The outline of this ramp is still visible in the restored exterior. The final storey of the tower was likely topped with a dome. The earliest known reference to the lighthouse at Brigantium is by

Paulus Orosius Paulus Orosius (; born 375/385 – 420 AD), less often Paul Orosius in English, was a Roman priest, historian and theologian, and a student of Augustine of Hippo. It is possible that he was born in ''Bracara Augusta'' (now Braga, Portugal), t ...

in , written around 415–417: : :("At the second angle of the circuit circumnavigating

Hispania Hispania was the Ancient Rome, Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two Roman province, provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior. During the Principate, Hispania Ulterior was divide ...

, where the

Gallaecia Gallaecia, also known as Hispania Gallaecia, was the name of a Roman province in the north-west of Hispania, approximately present-day Galicia, northern Portugal, Asturias and Leon and the later Kingdom of Gallaecia. The Roman cities inclu ...

n city of Brigantia is sited, a very tall lighthouse is erected among a few commemorative works, for looking towards

Britannia The image of Britannia () is the national personification of United Kingdom, Britain as a helmeted female warrior holding a trident and shield. An image first used by the Romans in classical antiquity, the Latin was the name variously appli ...

.") In 1788, the surviving tower core was given a neoclassical restoration, including a new fourth storey. The restoration was undertaken by naval engineer Eustaquio Giannini during the reign of

Charles III of Spain Charles III (; 20 January 1716 – 14 December 1788) was King of Spain in the years 1759 to 1788. He was also Duke of Parma and Piacenza, as Charles I (1731–1735); King of Naples, as Charles VII; and King of Sicily, as Charles III (or V) (1735� ...

, and was finished in 1791. UNESCO praised the work: "The Tower of Hercules was restored in the 18th century in an exemplary manner, which has protected the central core of the original Roman monument while restoring its technical functions". Within, the much-repaired Roman and medieval masonry remains visible. The Romans who conquered this region of Spain believed it to be, in a figurative sense, the end of the Earth – hence its name, . This region is notorious for shipwrecks, earning it the name , "Coast of Death".

Myths

Through the millennia, many mythical stories of the lighthouse's origin have been told. According to a myth that mixes Celtic and Greco-Roman elements, the hero

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the Gr ...

slew the giant tyrant

Geryon In Greek mythology, Geryon ( ; , genitive ), also Geryone (, or ), son of Chrysaor and Callirrhoe, the grandson of Medusa and the nephew of Pegasus, was a fearsome giant who dwelt on the island Erytheia of the mythic Hesperides in the far ...

after three days and three nights of continuous battle. Hercules then, in a traditional Celtic gesture, buried the head of Geryon with his weapons and ordered that a city be built on the site. The lighthouse, standing atop a

skull and crossbones A skull and crossbones is a symbol consisting of a human skull and two long bones crossed together under or behind the skull. The design originated in the Late Middle Ages as a symbol of death and especially as a ''memento mori'' on tombstones. ...

representing the buried head of Hercules' slain enemy, appears in the coat of arms of the city of

. According to another legend from the 11th-century Irish compilation —the "Book of Invasions"—King

Breogán Breogán (also spelt Breoghan, Bregon or Breachdan) is a character in the ''Lebor Gabála Érenn'', a medieval Christian history of Ireland and the Irish (or Gaels). He is supposedly the son of Brath, and is described as an ancestor of the Gae ...

, the founding father of the Galician Celtic nation, constructed a massive tower of such a grand height that his sons could see a distant green shore from its top. The glimpse of that distant green land lured them to sail north to Ireland. According to the legend, Breogán's descendants stayed in Ireland and are the Celtic ancestors of the current Irish people. A colossal statue of Breogán has been erected near the Tower. Throughout the Middle Ages, multiple naval crusading itineraries to the Holy Land mentioned the obligatory stopover at the Lighthouse. Usually, the crusader fleets would disembark there to reach the shrine of the Apostle

James the Greater James the Great (Koine Greek, Koinē Greek: Ἰάκωβος, romanized: ''Iákōbos''; Syriac language, Aramaic: ܝܥܩܘܒ, romanized: ''Yaʿqōḇ''; died AD 44) was one of the Apostles in the New Testament, Twelve Apostles of Jesus. Accordi ...

Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela, simply Santiago, or Compostela, in the province of Province of A Coruña, A Coruña, is the capital of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city ...

on foot. and helped to perpetuate the legend that the lighthouse had been built by

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...

perhaps due to a misreading of the ancient inscription.

Possible locations of Brigantia

Early geographical descriptions of the location of '' Brigantia'' point out that the town could be actually located in A Coruña or the location of the modern town of

Betanzos Betanzos () is a municipality in the autonomous community of Galicia in northwestern Spain in the province of A Coruña. It belongs to the comarca of Betanzos. In Roman times Betanzos was called Flauvium Brigantium or ''Brigantium''. During the ...

. There is some debate about this, as the people of Betanzos claim it as a fact that Betanzos is "the former city of Brigancia" until the 17th century, both in literary accounts as well as in maps, and they also believe that the name ''Betanzos'' is a phonetical evolution from ''Brigantium > Breganzo > Betanzos''. This could, however, be a

false etymology A false etymology (fake etymology or pseudo-etymology) is a false theory about the origin or derivation of a specific word or phrase. When a false etymology becomes a popular belief in a cultural/linguistic community, it is a folk etymology (or po ...

. The Betanzos tradition claims that the port of Betanzos was getting too small for the larger medieval ships and that king

Alfonso IX of León Alfonso IX (15 August 117123 or 24 September 1230) was King of León from the death of his father Ferdinand II in 1188 until his own death. He took steps towards modernizing and democratizing his dominion and founded the University of Salaman ...

decided to create a bigger port nearby in the 13th century. The place he chose was an uninhabited place called ''Clunia'', which later on evolved to ''Cruña'' and eventually ''Coruña''. The place name Clunia is believed to come from the

Proto-Celtic Proto-Celtic, or Common Celtic, is the hypothetical ancestral proto-language of all known Celtic languages, and a descendant of Proto-Indo-European. It is not attested in writing but has been partly Linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed throu ...

root ''*klou̯ni'' (cf.

Old Irish Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic (, Ogham, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ; ; or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic languages, Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive written texts. It was used from 600 to 900. The ...

''cluain''), meaning ''meadow''. However, the A Coruña tradition maintains that the "port" of Betanzos (which is a fluvial one in a quite small river) was far too small for Roman warships to dock at;

, for example, is said to have visited this area with "more than a hundred

trireme A trireme ( ; ; cf. ) was an ancient navies and vessels, ancient vessel and a type of galley that was used by the ancient maritime civilizations of the Mediterranean Sea, especially the Phoenicians, ancient Greece, ancient Greeks and ancient R ...

s". A Coruña was an important Roman site, as graveyards and other Roman remains have been found in the city centre, demonstrating that the site was inhabited in the Roman period and was deserted only during the early

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

due to Viking attacks, when its people moved inland to O Burgo (now

Culleredo Culleredo (, ) is a municipality in the province of A Coruña, in the autonomous community of Galicia, northwestern Spain. Culleredo is located on the outskirts of A Coruña and its population is mainly formed of commuters. It is located in the c ...

). The proponents of A Coruña as Brigantia also explain the different name as a change that occurred in the Middle Ages and point out that the lighthouse, which was called "Pharum Brigantium", was erected in A Coruña, and is at least 25 km (15 miles) (or a day's walk) from Betanzos.

Gallery

File:Escudo de A Coruña.svg, The Tower of Hercules in the coat of arms of Corunna File:Maregeo coruna2.jpg, Oil tanker ''

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans and Anatolia, and covers an area of some . In the north, the Aegean is connected to the Marmara Sea, which in turn con ...

'' burning behind the Tower of Hercules in 1992 File:Torre de Hércules, La Coruña, España, 2015-09-25, DD 35-37 HDR.jpg, View of the tower and its surroundings. File:Tower of Hercules in A Coruña.jpg, View of Torre de Hercules from the street.

References

;Specific references: ;General references:
"Documentos para estudiar la Torre de Hércules"
(in Spanish)
Tower of Hercules
from Spain.info

(in English) from the

Universidade da Coruña The FISU World University Games, formerly the Universiade, is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The former name is a portmanteau of the words "Universi ...

website
Tower of Hercules Visitor Services and Interpretive Center
(in English)

External links