Hi friends
Today I am talking about a building that because it is small and almost unadorned, it saves lives.
Mouro lighthouse
We are located on the Magdalena Peninsula in Santander- Spain.
As you all know, the lighthouse has a very important mission and it is to warn the ships that the coast is a few meters away, that the cliffs are a few meters from the surface and that they cannot pass, they also indicate the route that large ships have. to follow.
As a child you always dreamed of them with the big waves that lapped or hit the building and the lighthouse keeper, that person who took care that everything would work, was there alone with the sea, the wind his thoughts and hundreds of birds that had him as a rest in their crossing.
This lighthouse is anchored on a small island off the coast, the island is called as the lighthouse, rather the lighthouse is called as the Mouro island.
The lighthouse began flashing its lights on February 15, 1860.
It was built like the English lighthouses in a conical shape, where the tower came out of the center of the house.
The lighthouse keeper was almost always a single person, he was the one who took care of his function by turning on the lights when the sun got dark or the day had a deep fog, thus many years passed with loss of life of the lighthouse keepers due to the inclemency of our sea, a rough sea that has no mercy when it gets angry.
The tower measures 18.39 meters high and ends in what is its focus, which consisted of a wick and mirrors that reflected the light.
In 1921 it was automated by replacing the wick with a flashing system with a burner for the naked flame, the mirrors were also replaced by a drum optics.
In 1989 fuel was also replaced, switching to photovoltaic solar energy
But they keep renovating it and in 2004, they paint it and put on the old aesthetic but modernizing its entire interior and its function, giving more strength to the light.
“ A white light is used with 1 + 2 flashes every 21 seconds, with the following phases: 0.5 + 4.5 + 0.5 + 1.5 + 0.5 + 13.5. The power of the flashlight makes light visible at a distance of 11 nautical miles . " wikipedia
As I was telling you, the Cantabrian Sea tends to get very angry, making big waves and this lighthouse shows it, I guess like the stories of many lighthouses, lighthouse keepers who gave their lives to have that little flame lit, but when the waves crashed against the building it licked their bodies and killed them.
They were lonely men since on many stormy days they were only at the lighthouse without being able to go out.
These silent buildings, always tall, always in danger, with their lights at night, flickering at a rhythm studied in advance, which all sailors know and appreciate.
They are the buildings most exposed to the vagaries of the weather.
We could also say that they are the most photographed, the ones that make you dream, of a romance or adventure.
So much literature around him, so many romantic or mystery movies, makes us dream.
But this is a real lighthouse on a tiny island and because it is summer and sunny makes it attract attention, it is the most valuable building for sea voyages.
Although many are humble constructions, they have been in the most dangerous of the coast for many centuries, in the early days only a wooden pyre to its function and today the lighthouses around the world have the latest technologies.
The Spanish territory has 191 lighthouses, almost all with modern technology and they no longer need the famous lighthouse keeper who could spend days locked up in a storm.
Also lose my life and if you hurry me the sea could eat the lighthouse.
