September 2008

"Lighthouses"

This issue is made up of six stamps devoted to the following six lighthouses: Torredembarra in Tarragona; Irta in Castellón; Pechiguera in Lanzarote; Silleiro in Pontevedra; Barbaria in Formentera and Punta Orchilla in El Hierro.

The tower of the lighthouse of Torredembarra is the highest of all the lighthouses in Cataluña and is located in Punta de la Galera. The author of the project was architect José Llinás Carmona and was inaugurated on the 31st December 1999. It is a white octagonal tower measuring 33, 24 m up to the metallic structure that crowns it. At the top there is a gallery and the lamp, connected to the ground floor by 217 steps. Its light beam reaches out as far as 17 nautical miles.

The lighthouse of Irta was built by Rita Lorite Becerra and is located in Cala Mundana, in the municipality of Alcalá de Chivert. The shaft of the tower is square shaped and 25m tall. The building works were finished in 1990 and its lamp light reaches out as far as 12 nautical miles.

The Punta Pechiguera lighthouse stands in the town of Yaiza and signals the strait of La Bocayna, between Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. It is rectangular shaped and 25 metres high. It was finished in December 1990 and the beam of light reaches out as far as 12 nautical miles.

The lighthouse of Cabo Silleiro was inaugurated in 1866 near the town of Oia. Its new building has a rectangular floor-plan design and was built in 1924. Its height is of more than 85 m. above sea level and its light beam can be seen from as far as 33 nautical miles.

The Cap Babaria lighthouse is the most southern one in the Balearic islands. It works since 1972 and it’s a white cylindrical tower 19 metres high and with a light beam reaching out 18 nautical miles.

The lighthouse in Punta de la Orchilla is an octagonal masonry tower 132m above sea level and 25m high. It began to work in 1993 and its light reaches out 24 nautical miles.

The stamps depict the buildings of each of these six lighthouses featuring in this issue.