Farol da Ponta da Barca

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Farol da Ponta da Barca
Farol da Ponta da Barca 3.jpg
Place: Santa Cruz da Graciosa , Graciosa , Azores
Location: on a cliff
Geographical location: 39 ° 5 '37.5 "  N , 28 ° 2' 58.3"  W Coordinates: 39 ° 5 '37.5 "  N , 28 ° 2' 58.3"  W.
Fire carrier height : 23 m
Fire height : 71 m
Farol da Ponta da Barca (Azores)
Farol da Ponta da Barca
Identifier : Fl.W.7s
Scope knows: 20 nm (37 km )
Optics: Third order Fresnel lens , 500 mm
Operating mode: electric
Function: Coastal fire
Operating time: since February 1, 1930
International ordinal number: D-2676

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The Farol da Ponta da Barca is a lighthouse on the Ponta da Barca in the northwest of the Azores island of Graciosa . He is in the municipality of Santa Cruz da Graciosa in the district of the same name. The lighthouse is registered under the international number D-2676 and the national number 797. It irradiates the sectors from 029 ° to 031 °, 035 ° to 251 ° and 267 ° to 287 °. Its light has a range of 20  nautical miles .

description

With a height of 23 m, the Farol da Ponta da Barca is the tallest lighthouse in the Azores. The round tower made of plastered and painted reinforced concrete is banded in black and white and has a gallery. The metal lantern is glazed and painted red. At the height of the white bands, the tower has a window to the south. A short corridor connects the lighthouse to a one-story, white building with a rectangular floor plan. When it was completed, this initially contained two apartments for the families of the lighthouse keepers. With an extension in 1952, a third and later a fourth apartment was created. The main facade of the building faces south. The door in the middle is flanked by three windows on both sides. The window and door lintels and the window sills made of black basalt contrast with the white painted wall of the facade. The roof of the lighthouse keeper's house has a chimney on each side. The writing "FAROL DA PONTA DA BARCA" can be read above the yellow-brown entrance door. Further north there is an outbuilding of roughly the same width, which contains storage rooms and garages. The ensemble is surrounded by a wall painted white, the entrance to which can be closed with a red iron gate.

The cliff coast of Ponta da Barca and the offshore island of Ilhéu da Baleia are important nesting sites for sea ​​birds . They are therefore designated by BirdLife International as Important Bird Area PT061 "Ilhéu da Baleia e Ponta da Barca".

history

The general plan for lighting the Portuguese coasts of 1883, which also took the Azores into account, provided for Graciosa to build a lighthouse with second-order optics on Pico Negro, a volcanic cone near the Northwest Cape. After the plan was adapted in 1902, only fifth-order optics were to be used. It was not until 1927 that the lamp, a third-order Fresnel optic and the clockwork necessary for its rotation were bought from Barbier, Bénard et Turenne in France. The lighthouse was built until 1930, but on the promontory of Ponta da Barca near Pico Negro. It went into operation on February 1, 1930.

The lighthouse was not connected to the road network until 1935. In 1958 it was electrified by installing two generators . It was equipped with a 3000 watt lamp and reached a range of 41 nautical miles. An oil lamp was kept as a reserve . In 1978 the lighthouse and lighthouse keeper's house were damaged during a thunderstorm. The earthquake on January 1, 1980 cracked the tower. In the 1980s, a 1000 watt lamp was used, which reduced the range to 20 nautical miles. In 1999 the lighthouse was connected to the public power grid and automated.

See also

Web links

Commons : Farol da Ponta da Barca  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Farol da Ponta da Barca on the website of the Portuguese Maritime Administration, accessed on July 20, 2019 (Portuguese).
  2. ↑ a b List of Lights, Radio Aids and Fog Signals. Pub. 113: The West Coasts of Europe and Africa, The Mediterranian Sea, Black Sea and Azovskoye More (Sea of ​​Azov) (PDF; 5.4 MB), National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Springfield, Virginia, 2018, p. 410 (English ).
  3. ↑ Faróis de Portugal on the website of the Associação Nacional de Cruzeiros, accessed on July 20, 2019 (Portuguese).
  4. ^ Russ Rowlett: Lighthouses of Portugal: Azores ( English ) In: The Lighthouse Directory . University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . Retrieved July 23, 2019.
  5. ↑ Data sheet for the Important Bird Area PT061 (PDF; 97 kB), accessed on July 24, 2019 (Portuguese)
  6. ↑ a b c Farol da Ponta da Barca on the website of the Portuguese Information System for Architectural Heritage (Sistema de Informação para o Património Arquitectónico, SIPA), accessed on July 20, 2019 (Portuguese).