Cabo San Antonio Lighthouse, Maritime navigation point on Guanahacabibes Peninsula, Cuba.
Cabo San Antonio Lighthouse is a 23-metre cylindrical masonry tower painted white, with an open-work gallery and lantern, standing at Cuba's westernmost point above the Yucatán Channel. Its six floors are linked by an internal iron staircase of 72 steps, and a one-storey keeper's house stands beside it. The name Faro de Roncali is painted on the seaward face.
The lighthouse was built in 1850 during the Spanish colonial period on the orders of Governor Federico Roncali, whose name it long carried; it was completed on 15 September 1850 and entered service at once. Legend holds that before its construction sailors steered by a giant tree in the area, invisible at night and in storms, so shipwrecks were frequent. The cape already appears on a Spanish chart of 1834 updated in 1854.
The lighthouse is painted with the name "Faro de Roncali" on its sea-facing side, after Captain General Federico Roncali, the Spanish governor of Cuba who ordered its construction. A room inside was turned into a museum in 2000, showing documents and objects from the lighthouse's construction, photographs taken since it was built, and items from the Aboriginal, colonial and neocolonial periods.
The lighthouse stands at the end of the Guanahacabibes Peninsula inside the Guanahacabibes national park and biosphere reserve, so access follows the park's roads to Cape San Antonio. The tower's six floors are linked by an internal iron staircase of 72 steps. A one-storey keeper's house stands beside it, and one room has housed a museum open to the public since 2000.
The lighthouse was built 10 meters above sea level on a natural rocky outcrop, providing extra protection against storm surge. This elevated position also extends the range of its light signal, which flashes every 10 seconds across the Caribbean waters.
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