San Antonio Lighthouse, National historical lighthouse at Cape San Antonio, Argentina
San Antonio Lighthouse is a 58-metre metal tower built as an openwork tripod of three legs around a central cylinder, with a gallery and black lantern at the top. Its legs are painted in horizontal black and white bands. It stands beside a keeper's house on Punta Rasa, the northern tip of Cape San Antonio, within the Termas Marinas park 5 km north of San Clemente del Tuyú.
Built in 1892, the structure endured a tornado in 1917 that damaged one of its support legs. A fire in 1986 caused additional harm, but the tower survived and was later designated as a National Historical Monument in 2010.
The cape takes its name from the San Antonio, the flagship of Magellan's 16th-century expedition, sent to search for the Santiago while exploring these waters. The lighthouse is run by the Argentine Navy and has been a national historical monument since 2010.
The lighthouse stands on Punta Rasa, at the northern tip of Cape San Antonio, inside the Termas Marinas thermal-water park, about 5 km north of San Clemente del Tuyú. The tower is a metal tripod with an elevator beside the central cylinder, and a gas lantern on the gallery serves as emergency backup. The light shows one white flash of 1.4 seconds every 17 seconds.
The tower was built by the French firm Barbier, Bénard et Turenne, which also supplied lighthouses elsewhere in South America. Its gas lantern on the gallery is kept for emergencies and reaches 9 nautical miles, while the electric light covers 28. A tornado in 1917 broke one leg of the tripod.
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