Roches-Douvres Light, Lighthouse in Côtes-d'Armor, France.
Roches-Douvres Light is a lighthouse built on a five-storey elliptical granite dwelling, with a tall circular tower of pinkish stone rising from it. The tower is topped by a dark green metal lantern with vertical glass panes, a small domed roof and a white lattice mast. It stands on a reef covered at high tide, between Bréhat and Guernsey.
The original cast iron tower was built in 1868 using components that had been displayed at the 1867 Paris Exposition. German forces destroyed it during World War II, after which a new stone structure was erected in its place.
The French Service des phares et balises maintains this maritime navigation structure, which received historical monument status in 2017.
The structure sits roughly 30 kilometers offshore from the French coast and operates fully automatically with no public access allowed. Visitors can only view it from the water, making a boat trip from nearby Île-de-Bréhat the best way to see it.
The 1868 cast-iron tower was first assembled on the Champ de Mars in Paris for the 1867 Exposition Universelle, then taken apart and shipped in over 1,300 crates to Bréhat before being re-erected on the reef. Its twin is the Amédée Lighthouse in New Caledonia.
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