Penmarc'h Lighthouse

The Phare d’Eckmühl stands on Point Penmarc’h at the south-western tip of Finistère, where the Bay of Biscay begins. It is a white granite tower sixty-five metres tall, built in the 1890s to replace an earlier lighthouse of 1835. The new tower was funded by a legacy from the Marquise de Blocqueville, who asked that it honour her father, Marshal Davout, Prince of Eckmühl. Construction began in 1895 and the light was first shown in October 1897. The lighthouse was designed to carry a first-order Fresnel lens visible for twenty-eight nautical miles. Its focal plane sits fifty-two metres above the rocks, guiding ships away from the dangerous Breton coast. Engineers chose granite from Perros-Guirec so the tower would resist Atlantic storms. Inside, a spiral staircase of 307 steps leads to the lantern room. Visitors climb the stone and iron stairs to the top, where the lantern houses the original lens. From the gallery they look west across the churning sea and south along the jagged coastline. The wind off the water is often strong, and the granite walls still bear the salt spray of more than a century. Below, the fishing port of Saint-Pierre fills with boats at dawn.