Faro de la Creu (La cruz de Sóller)

Viewpoint | Sóller

The original lighthouse was designed by Emili Pou. The project was approved in 1862 as a sixth order lighthouse. It was inaugurated on 15-09-1864. It was a problematic lighthouse since its construction was studied, due to the complications derived from the existence in its vicinity of a "bufador", that is to say a great hollow in the rock communicated with the sea, because of which, when the great NW storms appear, a furious current of water is formed that rises more than 30 meters to collapse later on the lighthouse. Already in 1865 it was noted that as a consequence of the storms and the big waves, intense tremors were produced in the building. In those days, the lighthouse keeper considered it very dangerous to stay in the building and moved his family to a building near the lighthouse. In 1923, the usual residence in the circular building was definitively abandoned and the old temporary building used by the workers while the lighthouse works were being carried out was adapted as a dwelling. A new tower was projected in 1928, in a nearby but somewhat higher enclave and away from the bufador, at the same time that a new housing building was built. But the new lighthouse did not enter service until May 30, 1944. This, together with that of Cap Gross, were the first lighthouses that were electrified of all the Balearic Archipelago, in January 1918, although at the beginning the electrical line was very defective and almost every night the system of emergency lighting had to be placed during some hours that consisted of Maris lamp of a wick fed with petroleum.