La Farola de Málaga

La Farola de Málaga rises at the entrance of the port, on the Andalusian coast in the south of Spain. Engineer Joaquín María Pery y Guzmán designed it, and construction ran from 1813 to 1817. A wooden lantern by the French engineer Bartolomé Thurus had marked the spot from 1717. Málaga has adopted it as a symbol, and the promenade beside it carries the same name.

It has outlasted earthquakes, wars and shipwrecks while guiding sailors, fishermen and traders to Málaga's shores. A single storey went up at the base between 1853 and 1858 to house the keeper. An Andalusian earthquake put the lighting gear out of action in 1884, and repairs followed the next year. Renovations in 1913 and 1915 added a floor and renewed the optics, with Mauro Serret and Julius Pintsch AG contributing. On 28 August 1936 the Republican Navy Command ordered the light put out, because its silhouette guided enemy artillery and aircraft. Earth-coloured paint and dark and light patches hid it, yet serious damage led to reconstruction in 1939. The expanding port later grew round it, with plans to house the Museum of the Port of Málaga inside. It has been a cultural asset in the monument category since 2023.

Its light flashes in a pattern all its own, a fingerprint recorded in lighthouse books. From far out at sea, that flash tells you which tower you are approaching. Before electricity, keepers turned a crank by hand to charge the light, working in shifts round the clock. The last resident keeper left in 1993, since GPS now gives every ship its exact position. It holds one further distinction: it is among the few lighthouses on the Iberian Peninsula that go by a feminine name.