Yesterday Sunday, 2 July, the first meeting of the newly formed “Platform Salvemos Cabo de Palos lighthouse” took place at the foot of the Cabo de Palos lighthouse, where they declared “a resounding denunciation” of the PP’s proposal to turn the lighthouse over to private management.
The meeting was attended by representatives of the Neighborhood Association of Cabo de Palos, La Manga del Mar Menor, the Federation of Neighbors of Cartagena and Comarca (Favcav), CCOO of the Port Authority, members of Círculo Podemos La Manga and Cartagena, Yes You can and a number of lighthouse residents and their families.
They unanimously stated that they were not prepared to see this historic building to be passed into private management. It is currently being inhabited by four families of staff employed to operate the lighthouse who between them guide over 50,000 ships around the rocky the headland of Cabo de Palos every year.
The new Platform has been created as a “public entity, and not associated with any political party. The members have set themselves the goal of “involving the majority of the population, neighborhood associations and other groups interested in joining the platform to obtain maximum support in defence of the local heritage.”
The lighthouse is one of the most interesting neoclassical buildings in the Region sitting on the last hill of the coastal mountain range of Cartagena at a point where the land land submerges under the Mediterranean waters before reemerging in the islands of Islas Hormigas.
Originally created to house the school of “Escuela de Torreros”, the lighthouse faces East on the highest point of the cape, an area where there was an artillery emplacement or watch tower back in the day. The idea of building a watch tower on the headland of Cabo de Palos as part of defense system covering the entire Murcia Region coast, is attributed to king Felipe II in 1570. The original tower was destroyed in 1861 with the idea of building what is now the Cabo de Palos Lighthouse, project coordinated by the engineer Leonardo de Tejada.
The construction certificate of acceptance was dated December 18, 1864 and the lighthouse first emitted light on January 31, 1865.
