Phare de Terre-Nègre, Lighthouse in Saint-Palais-sur-Mer, France

The Phare de Terre-Nègre is a 26.60-metre cylindrical tower, 3.16 metres in diameter, rising from a single-storey keeper's house at the Pointe de Terre-Nègre in Saint-Palais-sur-Mer. The tower is painted white below and red above, with a red lantern room and gallery at the top. A 143-step spiral staircase around a central core leads to the summit platform and its directional light.

A marker at Pointe de Terre-Nègre was planned in 1763; the Bordeaux engineer Claude Tardy led construction of the tower from 1770 to 1773. It was raised in 1807, and after requests from Royan sailors a permanent white fourth-order light was installed on 15 October 1838. Electrified in 1939, it served as a Wehrmacht observation post during the occupation and was repaired after damage in 1945.

The tower's two-colour paint scheme, red above and white below, is a daymark meant to make it stand out against the coast. It marks the southern passage of the Gironde estuary and warns of the sandbank known as the "barre à l'Anglais". The keeper's former dwelling now hides the base of the tower.

The tower stands at the Pointe de Terre-Nègre, at the end of the chemin de la Pointe; the 143-step spiral stair is inside and the keeper's house masks the base. The light's range is eighteen nautical miles. The site is a listed monument since 15 April 2011, so look for the tower from the coastal path rather than counting on entering.

The tower's two-colour paint scheme is functional: the upper part is red and the lower part white, so the tower stands out against both sea and sky. The 143-step spiral stair winds around a central core to a top platform with a directional light. The light's present range is eighteen nautical miles.