Spain

One of the questions I often get asked is how I became interested in lighthouses. I explain that I grew up near the ocean and have always had a love for things nautical. I add that my first job included traveling around the world on oceanographic ships. I have fond memories of the welcoming beam of a lighthouse as our vessel approached land after a long voyage. In recent years I learned that my love of lighthouses may also be "in my blood." My great-great-grandfather was a lighthouse keeper on the north coast of Spain from 1863 to 1904.

The first crude beacons to serve as lighthouses, in what is now Italy, were probably constructed during the heyday of ancient Greece. Before the rise of the Roman Empire the Greeks traded heavily with the colonies of the southern Italian peninsula and Sicily. However, we only have documentation of lighthouses in Italy from Roman times. Evidence comes from the writings of the Roman historian Pliny, bas reliefs, coins, decorations on vases, mosaics and even sarcophagi.