Tour Joséphine, Lighthouse in Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie, France

The Tour Joséphine is a pale, block-cut stone tower in Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie, slightly tapered and rising to a projecting circular gallery with a metal railing. On the gallery sits a smaller green lantern room with vertical glass panes under a green domed roof; a light blue-green door with a small barred window opens at the base. The tower is 8 metres tall, its lantern 3.5 metres.

In January 1837 sixteen captains from the port of Croix-de-Vie asked for a harbour light visible two or three leagues out at sea, placed at the end of the pier. The tower was built in 1850 as a tribute to Joséphine de Beauharnais and lit from 1852 to 1880. It marked the harbour entrance until 1875, when it became an explosives depot.

The tower's name honours Joséphine de Beauharnais, chosen when sixteen captains of the port of Croix-de-Vie requested a harbour light in January 1837. Locals also call it the Tour du Vieux Môle, after the old pier at whose end it was placed.

The tower stands on a paved surface with a low wall behind it, in the public garden opened around it in 2003. The entrance is a low step up to a light blue-green door with a small barred window; the lantern room and gallery above are not reached from the ground.

The tower's second life began in 1875, when it was converted into an explosives depot, which earned it the nickname Tour à Dynamite. Its light had already been switched off in 1880, so the nickname outlived the lighthouse role. The Conseil général de la Vendée restored the tower, its crown and lantern in 2000.