Lanterna di Genova

Lighthouse Genoa, Italy

The Lanterna di Genova (or simply "Lanterna", in Genoese a Lanterna de Zena or a Lanterna) is the port lighthouse of the capital of Liguria, the city once defined as the Superb or Dominant of the seas. In addition to being an indispensable tool for the night navigation of ships entering and leaving the port, the Lanterna is also the city's symbolic monument, almost a totem to the Genoese, and as such it is part of the city's history. With its seventy-seven meters it is the tallest lighthouse in the Mediterranean and the second in Europe after the lighthouse of Île Vierge, in the French department of Finistère, which in 1902 took away the primacy from the Lanterna, surpassing it in height by about five metres. It currently appears to be the fifth tallest lighthouse in the world and the second, always behind that of Île Vierge, among the traditional ones, i.e. built by the respective port authorities with the primary purpose of supporting navigation. Considered in its monumentality, which also includes the historic rock on which it rests, it reaches 117 meters in height. The building consists of a tower on two orders of square section with a terrace at the top of each order. Built in its current structure in 1543, it is also the third oldest lighthouse in the world among those still in operation, after the Tower of Hércules, lighthouse in the Spanish city of A Coruña and the Kõpu lighthouse on the Estonian island of Hiiumaa.