The Tower of Hercules - a visit by Jim Wheeler


Last year, Extent Heritage Director Jim Wheeler had the honour of visiting this outstanding World heritage site - The Tower of Hercules , A Coruña, Galicia, Spain.

Here he shares a few of the reasons you might want to pop it on your World Heritage bucket list!

Site highlights:

  • The oldest continuous lighthouse in the world (by a country mile!). 

  • The only Roman lighthouse still in use for Maritime signalling.

  • Constructed in the 1st century AD as Farum Brigantium, and testament to the complex system of maritime navigation and importance of the extensive trade networks established throughout the Roman world during the early imperial period.

  • The core of the original Roman structure is encased and quite well preserved within the neo-classical shell built in the late 18th century. The late 18th century restoration in itself is a superb piece of architecture and an early example where significant efforts were made to to preserve and interpret an original ancient structure. The 18th century lighthouse is significant and a very early example of a modern lighthouse in its own right.

 
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Did you know?

The Tower of Hercules takes a starring role in a key chapter of Irish medieval mythology. According to the Irish medieval pseudo-history the Lebor Gabála Érenn, Íth, the son of the legendary King Breogán of Galicia glimpsed a far off distant green land from the top of his father's mighty tower and travelled to Ireland with a party of adventurers. After a series of misadventures, the followers of King Breogán who came to be called the 'Milesians', eventually conquered the old peoples of Ireland the Fomorians and the Tuath Dé. Although the Lebor Gabála Érenn has long since been discredited as a serious history, an ancestral link between north-western Spain and Ireland is still a widely held belief in Ireland to this day. 

Why go?

For lighthouse lovers, this one is the holy grail  - the oldest continuous marine light in the world ! There is a very interesting archaeological excavation retained in-situ and interpreted beneath the undercroft of the lighthouse podium, explaining the phases of construction and use of the lighthouse over 2000 years. And it is set in a fascinating unspoilt part of Spain, with some of the best seafood on the planet ! Pick a clear day and see if you can spot a far off distant land from the top of the tower...

Find the official UNESCO listing information here : https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1312/

 
 
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