Ponta do Pargo lighthouse
Original title: Farol da Ponta do Pargo
The lighthouse at Ponta do Pargo, western end of Madeira's south coast, built before the First World War but only inaugurated on 5 June 1922.
Lighting the other end of Madeira’s south coast is also a recognised need, with the São Lourenço lighthouse (Farol de São Lourenço) to the east and the projected Ponta do Pargo (‘sea bream point’) lighthouse to the west. The building and other premises intended to house the lighthouse and its staff were built some years ago, and all the work has been completed. All that remains is the purchase of the lantern and the other apparatus needed to fit out the lighthouse, which the European conflict prevented from being in operation already. The continuation of the building is owed to the District General Council (Junta Geral) of this district, which will shortly acquire the light and install it. (1921).
The Ponta do Pargo lighthouse was inaugurated on 5 June 1922. It stands on the Ponta da Vigia (‘lookout’), some 375 metres above sea level, at the locality (sítio) where there was once a telegraph station and which was known as Casa do Rei (‘the king’s house’). We have read somewhere that this lighthouse ‘emits three successive beams of white light with a power of 5,500 carcels, each lasting 0.5 of a second, at intervals of 3.5 seconds’.
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Places mentioned · 05- Ponta do Pargo lighthouse · Subject
Calheta
Lighthouse at Ponta do Pargo, at the western end of Madeira's south coast. It was built before the First World War but only inaugurated on 5 June 1922.
- Casa do Rei
Calheta. Former name of the site, where a telegraph once stood.
Former name of the site, where a telegraph once stood.
- Ponta da Vigia
Calheta. Exact site of the lighthouse, about 375 m above sea level.
Exact site of the lighthouse, about 375 m above sea level.
- Ponta do Pargo
Calheta. Western extremity of the south coast where the lighthouse stands.
Ponta do Pargo is a parish at Madeira's western extremity, transferred from Porto do Moniz to Calheta municipality in 1871, where a lighthouse long demanded was first lit in 1922. It is watered by the old Rabaçal levada, grows Sercial vines, gives its name to a white cattle sub-breed, and was the birthplace of Manuel da Costa Dias and João Pestana Júnior.
- São Lourenço lighthouse
Machico. Eastern lighthouse balancing the Ponta do Pargo light.
The Farol de São Lourenço is a lighthouse on the islet off Ponta de São Lourenço, Madeira's eastern tip. It was built in 1868–70 and first lit on 30 September 1870, some forty years after the Porto Santo light. It is the eastern counterpart to the Ponta do Pargo lighthouse.