The Sines Lighthouse (''Farol de Sines'') is located at Cabo de Sines, in
Sines
Sines () is a town and a municipality in Portugal. The municipality, divided into two parishes, has around 14,214 inhabitants (2021) in an area of . Sines holds an important oil refinery and several petrochemical industries. It is also a popular ...
, in the
Setúbal District
The District of Setúbal ( ) is a district located in the south-west of Portugal. It is named for its capital, the city of Setúbal.
Geography
It is delimited by Lisbon District and Santarém District on the north, Évora District on the eas ...
of
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...
. It is a 22-metre high white cylindrical tower with a red beacon.
A detailed plan for additional lighthouses along the Portuguese coast was first developed in 1866 by Francisco Maria Pereira da Silva, Inspector General of Lighthouses and a lighthouse at Sines featured in this plan. The plan was approved in 1870 but construction of the Sines lighthouse was not finally completed until April 1880. The lighthouse consisted of two adjoining buildings and a cylindrical tower; 22 metres high. It was initially equipped with a second-order optical device, with lighting fuelled by oil vapour. In 1915 this was replaced by a rotating third-order
Fresnel
Augustin-Jean Fresnel (10 May 1788 – 14 July 1827) was a French civil engineer and physicist whose research in optics led to the almost unanimous acceptance of the wave theory of light, excluding any remnant of Newton's corpuscular th ...
device with a 500mm focal length, which increased the range to 30 nautical miles and enabled the fixed light to be replaced by a flashing one. In the same year a new lighthouse, also one of those identified by Pereira da Silva, was constructed at
Cabo Sardão, about 45 kilometers to the south.
In 1948 an accompanying annex building was constructed to facilitate installation of a radio beacon. In the same year a generator was installed, and the light source was changed to electric lamps. Two years later, the lighthouse was connected to the public network. At this time, with the installation of aeromaritime panels, it also became an
aerial lighthouse, for navigation by planes. A radio beacon was installed in 1953 but deactivated in the 1990s.
[
In 1992 work started to increase the height of the tower and a temporary light was installed on scaffolding. The lantern, optical device and other items were removed and are now in the Santa Marta Lighthouse Museum in Cascais. The lighthouse recommenced operations in 1995, using a fourth-order Fresnel device and a 1000-Watt lamp, which guarantees a range of 26 nautical miles, together with a rotating engine. The cylindrical tower at Sines is now constructed in two parts, with different diameters. There is an iron balcony at the top, which surrounds the light, which is now 28 metres high, with an altitude of 56 metres.][
]
Visits
The lighthouse can be visited on Wednesdays between 14.00 and 17.00.[
]
See also
* List of lighthouses in Portugal
This is an alphabetical list of lighthouses in Portugal and its autonomous regions.
Norte
* Casa do Facho em Fão (Esposende, Apúlia e Fão)
* Farol de Azurara (Vila do Conde, Azurara)
* Farol de Esposende (Esposende, Esposende, Marinhas e G ...
* Directorate of Lighthouses, Portugal
The Directorate of Lighthouses in Portugal (''Direção de Faróis'') is responsible for managing the country's 47 lighthouses, as well as other marine navigation activities. It is headquartered in Paço de Arcos.
Lighthouses have played an impo ...
References
*
{{Authority control
Lighthouses in Portugal
Lighthouses completed in 1880
Buildings and structures in Setúbal District
Buildings and structures in Sines