Tower of Hercules
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How it came to be
In the late 1st century AD the Romans built a lighthouse at Brigantium, today's A Coruña in north-western Spain, on a 57 m rock at the entrance to the harbour. It was known as the Farum Brigantium, farum coming from the Pharos of Alexandria. A stone at its base carries a dedication to Mars by the architect Gaius Sevius Lupus of Aeminium, today's Coimbra in Portugal. The original tower was wider than today's and wrapped in a spiral ramp, whose outline can still be traced on the outer walls.
The earliest known written reference, by Paulus Orosius around 415 to 417, mentions a very tall lighthouse at Brigantia. In the Middle Ages crusader fleets bound for the Holy Land stopped there, and legends grew around the tower: one tells that Hercules killed the giant Geryon and buried his head on the spot, and the city's coat of arms still shows the tower above a skull and crossbones. In 1682 the Duke of Uceda had a wooden staircase built through the vaults to the top.
In the reign of Charles III the naval engineer Eustaquio Giannini rebuilt the tower, finishing the work in 1791. He kept the 34 m Roman core and added a new 21 m upper section, bringing the height to 55 m. The tower was declared a national monument in 1931 and a World Heritage site on 27 June 2009, and it is the only fully preserved Roman lighthouse still used for maritime signalling.
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