Chapter The Historic Lighthouses of the Italian Coasts

Overview & Synopsis

The tall tower building with an intense light source on the top, visible far away, called a lighthouse in English, takes its name in the Romance languages of faro. The fuels used to produce lighting have progressively adapted to the times: bundles of dry wood, olive oil, wax candles, sperm whale fat, paraffin oil, acetylene, arriving to electricity. The lighthouses didn’t only have positive aspects; in fact, they not only facilitated bearings during night navigation, but also indicated to the pirates the coastal cities to plunder. This gave rise to a sort of "land piracy" as "prankster" characters lit "fake beacons" on reefs, shoals, etc. waters where ships were stranded and were therefore more easily plundered. This work shows the current number of lighthouses in Italy, giving greater emphasis to the Italian historic lighthouses, which, by definition, are those that meet at least three of the characteristics established by IALA. As in other European countries, also in Italy the lighthouse lantern was often placed on the top of bell towers of the churches along the coastline. The oldest Italian lighthouses are on the Tyrrhenian coast the lighthouse of Rome Port and on the Adriatic coast the lighthouse of Ravenna Port. Obviously, we will only mention the lighthouses, which in our opinion are the most important and given the historicity of these we will only deal with the "bright" lighthouses, outlining the historical-geographical context within which they were built.