Cap de Creus
It is the easternmost lighthouse on the Iberian Peninsula, located in an isolated area of extraordinary beauty that is part of the Cap de Creus Natural Park, and the region of Cadaqués. It is located 500 metres from the tip of the cape, on a cliff with a steep orography known as Punta de l’Esquena. This falls into the sea forming wild coves and an island, l’Encalladora, separated by a narrow channel.
Strategic point of the coast
The lighthouse, 87 metres high, receives the attacks of the north-easterly and easterly winds and gives light and is a coastal reference point in one of the hardest areas for navigation on the Catalan coast. In addition, it is a strategic geographical point on the mainland coast, which is why it was included in the first programme of the lighthouse system designed by the government of Isabel II.
It came into operation on the night of 29 July 1853, only 19 months after the Llobregat lighthouse, the oldest in Catalonia. In October 1937, in the middle of the Civil War, an attack disabled the optics of the lighthouse, leaving it in the dark until the end of the war, which shows its strategic role.
Film set
A large building, now converted into an information centre about the natural park with the name Espai Cap de Creus, surrounds the facility, which is essentially an 11-metre-high tower.
In the 1960s, this lighthouse and its reduced-scale model were the setting for several adventure and pirate films. This is the case of the film The lighthouse at the end of the world, based on a novel by Jules Verne, which tells the story of a lighthouse that disorients sailors in order to make them prey. This area has also been a source of inspiration for painters and poets, surrealists and the avant-garde, both European and American.
The Cap de Creus lighthouse
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