Vorontsov Lighthouse, Lighthouse at Karantine Pier in Odessa, Ukraine

The Vorontsov Lighthouse is a red-and-white iron tower 27.2 metres tall on the tip of the Raidovy (formerly Karantinny) Mole in Odesa's port. Its one-million-watt light shows three dashes, the Morse letter O for Odesa, and a foghorn sounds in storms or fog. A long stone causeway and jetty connect it to the shore.

Odesa's first lighthouse was laid in 1815 at Cape Velykyi Fontan and opened on 6 December 1827 under Governor-General Prince Vorontsov, who gave it his name. A wooden lighthouse was placed on the end of the Quarantine Pier in 1845 on the initiative of Admiral Mikhail Lazarev. A cast-iron tower followed in 1863, rebuilt in 1888 and destroyed by explosion on 15 September 1941. The present 26-metre white tower with a red lantern was made at the Kronstadt shipyard in 1954.

The name Vorontsov comes from Prince Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov, governor-general when Odesa's first lighthouse, begun in 1815 at Cape Bolshoy Fontan, was opened on 6 December 1827 and popularly called Vorontsovsky. The name passed to each successor beacon on the Quarantine and later Raidovy moles. Odesa writers made the light a city symbol: Kuprin in "Gambrinus", Kataev in "The Lone White Sail", Paustovsky in "Time of Great Expectations".

The lighthouse stands at the tip of the Ryadovyi (formerly Karantynnyi) Pier, reached by a 612.4-metre stone causeway from the port shore; it is an active navigation aid, not a climbable monument. Vessels use it as the front beacon of a range whose rear light sits on a white multi-storey building 1.2 nautical miles away. Its light shows for 15 nautical miles and a nauphone fog signal operates in mist.

The lighthouse is the front light of a range: the rear light is a white four-sided tower with a red lamp on the roof of a white multi-storey building, 20 m up and 1.2 nautical miles away. Ships line up both lights to enter the harbour.