Faro de Cabo de Santa María

By 1872, the lighthouse at La Paloma had climbed to nearly 30 meters when a violent storm erased it overnight. On the morning of May 31, a worker from a neighboring ranch arrived with remarkable news: the tower had simply vanished. Seventeen workers were buried in the collapse, but the Uruguayan government pressed on. Stone and iron had to be shipped from Montevideo because nothing suitable existed locally, and the dangerous coastline couldn’t wait.

Two years later, a new lighthouse rose in its place. Inaugurated on September 1, 1874, it became both the official founding date of La Paloma and a beacon for ships navigating the treacherous sandbanks and rocky shoals along Uruguay’s Atlantic coast. The circular ashlar tower was equipped with a first-order Fresnel lens manufactured by French company Sautter-Lemonier, the largest type still in service among Uruguay’s lighthouses. Originally oil-powered, it was electrified in 1936 while maintaining its original optics and rotating mechanisms.

After climbing 143 spiral steps, visitors are rewarded with sweeping views of Laguna de Rocha to the west and the coastline that once demanded such careful navigation. Nearly 150 years after defying the storm that felled its predecessor, the lighthouse was declared a National Historic Monument in 1976 and remains one of Rocha’s most enduring landmarks.