Lighthouse Guilvinec

The Guilvinec Lighthouse is located in the small port town of Guilvinec in Finistère, France. Called “The Fire of the North Jetty,” it has illuminated and secured the entrance to the port and its pier since it opened on March 17, 1923.

Talks of a lighthouse first began in 1906 when the city’s municipal council met to discuss the pier. The project was approved within a year and construction for the lighthouse soon began. Completed in 1922, the cost of the project at the time was estimated to be 9,000 francs.

Built with stone masonry, the lighthouse is a canonical tower, rectangular at the base with its lower half painted white and its upper half painted red. Containing metal reflectors, its red fixed light sits 50 miles above sea level and is visible over a distance of 9 miles.

Lighthouse Guilvinec is known as one of “The Three Lights of Guilvinec.” The other two include the Lost-Moan, a concrete tower at the eastern end of the port that’s only accessible by boat, and the Posterior Light, which dates back to 1871, and is a square tower whose light is visible by over 3,000 feet.