Capo Spartivento Calabro Lighthouse, Maritime navigation tower in Palizzi, Italy.
The Capo Spartivento Calabro Lighthouse is a white square prism masonry tower 4.6 m high, with balcony and grey metallic lantern, rising from the seaside front of a one-storey white keeper's house. It stands on a hill 63 m above sea level in Palizzi, Calabria, on the Ionian Sea.
The lighthouse was built in 1867 on a hill 64 m above sea level at Capo Spartivento, in the municipality of Palizzi. It was renovated in 1910, when the white square tower and the one-storey keeper's house took their present form. It is now fully automated and operated by the Marina Militare under code 3384 E.F., controlled by the Reggenza fari di punta Capo dell'Armi.
The name Spartivento, "wind-splitter", refers to the cape where currents and winds divide, not to any strait toward Sicily: the lighthouse faces the Ionian Sea. It is switched on half an hour before sunset and off half an hour after sunrise, a timing islanders and fishermen along this coast know well.
The lighthouse stands on a hill 64 m above sea level at Capo Spartivento, in the Palizzi municipality; the tower itself is not open to visitors, as the Marina Militare runs it for maintenance and surveillance. The light switches on half an hour before sunset and off half an hour after sunrise, so the beam is not visible in full daylight. Approach on foot with sturdy shoes for the paths around the headland.
The lantern sits 63 metres above sea level and gives one white flash every 8 seconds, visible up to 24 nautical miles. The light is switched on half an hour before sunset and off half an hour after sunrise. The tower rises from the seaside front of a one-storey keeper's house.
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