Faro de Alcanada

Parks and Nature | Alcúdia

It was designed by Emili Pou. It was inaugurated on May 15, 1861 as a 6th order lighthouse, with catadioptric optics and fixed light. In 1863 an iron beam roof was installed (the wooden ones were already rotten). In 1866 the launch service was auctioned (as in the other lighthouses that needed this service) and was granted for 584 escudos per year, so that in 1867 the sailors stopped living on the island and moved to Puerto de Alcudia, having to make two weekly trips to the lighthouse, or extra trips if the lighthouse keepers communicated an urgent need by means of the placement of a white flag. In 1917 rotating screens were installed in the optics, having a luminous appearance of 3+1 occultations and producing the luminous focus by means of an acetylene gas burner. The gas was elaborated in the same lighthouse, using for it a gasogen where stones of calcium carbide and water were mixed. In 1922 the roof was replaced by a tiled roof, due to severe infrastructure problems caused by humidity. In 1960, the lantern was removed and a non-visitable lantern was placed in its place, and at that time the solar valve was automated. This was the reason why, the following year, the lighthouse was left without resident personnel. Its luminous appearance then became one of equidistant white flashes. Later, in the nineties, solar panels were installed, which allowed the gas apparatus to be removed. Today, although it retains the old AGA gas lantern, it has a modern 54-watt LED acrylic optic inside. As in many other lighthouses, the lighthouse keepers of Alcanada took an active part in the rescue of the victims of several shipwrecks.