'A Lanterna de Zena' is the main symbol of Genoa.
77 metres high and situated at an elevation of 117 metres above sea level (considering the historic rock on which it is built), it is the highest maritime lighthouse in Italy and the Mediterranean.
12th century's building
The first tower, according to some unofficial sources, dates back to medieval times (1128) and was characterised by an architectural structure consisting of three overlapping crenellated trunks. Unfortunately, there are no official records as documents from the 12th century, the first chronicles and official acts of the nascent Genoese municipality, provide reliable data on the tower, but not its exact date of construction. At the top, bundles of dry heather ('brugo') or broom ('brusca') stems were lit in order to signal approaching ships, whose masters had to pay a tax 'pro igne facendo in capite fari' at the time of landing. The tower stood along the connecting road between Genoa and the west, the so-called Via di Francia, which ran along the harbour arch and the Promontory, on the last offshoot of the coast of Sampierdarena, then a holiday resort, overlooked by numerous palaces and noble villas. At the time, the road was probably overlooking the sea and passed by the lighthouse; graphic representations of the road describe it instead in a more recent guise, certainly not prior to the 17th century, passing inside the lighthouse through the so-called 'tagliata', a deep trench dug upstream of the Lanterna. At that time, the Lanterna was therefore relatively far away from the city, and it was not until the 17th century that it was incorporated into the so-called 17th-century Cerchia, the mighty circle of walls almost nineteen kilometres long around the city, almost entirely in existence to this day. One of the prints depicting the two Lanterns (c. 1490).
The tower became a protagonist in the war between the Guelphs and Ghibellines when it was damaged by the latter, who attempted to bring down the Guelphs who had taken refuge inside. This was in 1318, and three years later, in 1321, an initial consolidation was carried out by digging a moat for defence. In 1326, the first lanterns powered by olive oil were installed in both lighthouses to help ships locate the entrance to the city. The first graphic representation of the making of Capo Faro (at least among those that have come down to us) dates back to 1371 and is found on the cover of the parchment entitled Manuale dei Salvatori del Molo e del Porto. Around 1400, the tower also became a prison to house as hostages, for five years, the King of Cyprus, James I of Lusignan, who was imprisoned here with his wife (who gave birth to their son Janus within those walls). To better identify the Lanterna with the city, in 1340 the coat of arms of the Municipality of Genoa was painted on the top of the lower tower, by the painter Evangelista di Milano. In 1405 the Lanterna's guardian priests placed a fish and a gilded metal cross on the dome, a symbol of Christianity, and in 1413 a decree of the 'Consoli del Mare' allocated a fund of '36 lire' to ensure the management of the lighthouse, which had become indispensable for the safety of navigation.
Reconstruction in 1543
In 1507, during a period of French rule over the city, King Louis XII had the 'Fort Briglia' built at the foot of the Lanterna, a fortification to house the garrison of the invading army. From the fort, with the support of a warship that blocked naval traffic, in 1513 the French besieged the port of Genoa, which was later liberated by the Genoese forces led by Andrea Doria, commander of the port and fleet. During this battle, the Lanterna was heavily damaged by friendly bombard fire exploded by the Genoese insurgents against the French rulers. After thirty years, in 1543, the Lanterna was rebuilt at the behest of Doge Andrea Centurione Pietrasanta, who had the work financed by the Banco di San Giorgio. The lighthouse thus assumed its current appearance, stylistically linked to the Renaissance world, by applying projecting corbels to the crowning plinths.
A new lantern with a dome made of oak slats and covered with copper and lead sheets fastened with as many as 600 copper nails was installed. For the occasion, a plaque commemorating the reconstruction was placed at the top of the first tower, inside the gallery. The lantern consisted of a large stained-glass window whose glass panes, of considerable thickness and weight, were supplied, as they had been since 1326, by master glassmakers, first from Liguria and later from Venice. The lantern panes often exploded, cracked or tilted due to the violence of the wind, the oscillations of the tower, the deformation of the iron uprights due to lightning strikes and, not least, due to warlike events, for which they were required in large quantities. The lantern keepers, custodians of the Lanterna or Turrexani of the tower, as they were called in the documents of the time, were required to live with their families inside the tower and "to see to it that the glass was always clear and clean so that the light from the lamp would appear sharp and bright". Throughout history, the Lantern has been struck by lightning several times; the most serious damage occurred in 1481, when lightning struck the tower killing one of the keepers. In 1602, lightning struck the Lantern again, destroying the crenellated part of the upper tower. Following the episode in 1603, a marble plaque was walled at the outer base of the upper tower for propitiatory purposes, bearing the inscription 'Jesus Cristus rex venit in pace at Deus homo factus est'. Today, the ancient plaque is still walled up on the ground at the base of the upper tower, although it is now almost illegible. In 1565, work was again carried out on the dome to make it watertight, and in 1681 the dome was rebuilt with wild chestnut wood, covering it with pitch and tow, and finally with tin-plated lead sheets with overlapping edges.
The French Siege
The Lantern in an aquatint of c. 1810 by Ambroise Louis Garneray. In 1692, the stained glass window destroyed by the bombardment of 1684, carried out by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Marquis of Seignelay and the French Admiral Abraham Duquesne on the orders of King Louis XIV, was rebuilt. Following repeated damage caused by lightning and wartime events, the tower was chained up in 1711 by means of bolts and rods that can still be seen inside today, and in 1791, consolidation work was carried out at the base of the first tower to make it more stable. The construction of a lightning protection system by the physicist Father Glicerio Sanxay dates back to 1778, intended to put an end to the numerous damages caused by lightning over several centuries. It must be said that for centuries lighting was done with metal or glass wick lamps.
The Innovations of the Risorgimento and the 20th Century
In 1840, a rotating optic was built on a wheeled carriage with a Fresnel lens and on 15 January 1841, the new lighting system, the study of which had been carried out by Professor Plana, was switched on and started up. The new system consisted of a lantern with a diameter of 4 metres, dodecagonal in shape with 4 rows of flat crystals on the seaward side, while the upstream side, in the sector between 110° and 290°, was darkened by means of circular copper plates. The base of the lantern rested on the seaward side on lead plates and on the landward side on iron plates; the whole was reinforced with iron uprights and crossbars. The main features were: a fixed white light with a range of 15 miles, to which were superimposed one-minute intervals of glow visible up to about 20 miles. The Lanterna in a late 19th century photo, with the promontory of San Benigno and its barracks Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the lighthouse began to be considered inadequate in relation to the arc of coastline that it was supposed to signal; in 1881 it was even proposed to downgrade it and build a new one on the promontory of Portofino, in this one better suited to the needs of navigation.
This proposal was, however, shelved three years later, because in the light of the new possibilities that technical development allowed, it was possible to adopt the solution of upgrading the Genoa lighthouse so as to obtain coverage of the coast to the east as far as the Tino Lighthouse sector and to the west as far as the Capo Mele Lighthouse sector. After further upgrades in 1898 and 1913, modern electrification took place in 1936. Then in 1956, after the damage received by the US and British air forces in World War II, the old lantern was replaced along with the rotating optics and all the devices. In order not to change the architectural style of the old monument, the dimensions of the new lantern were similar to its 1841 predecessor. At the same time, an emergency power supply system was installed, a freight elevator was installed in the narrow space of the stairwell and the coat of arms of the glorious Maritime Republic on the facade of the lower tower was repainted. As a last noteworthy modification, in 1970 the old engine-weighted rotation system, which remained in place as a reserve, was replaced by an electric rotation system, and following the opening of the Genoa airport, located a few kilometres from the tower, a red flashing light of modest capacity was placed at the top of the Lanterna dome as a warning signal for aircraft. The entire complex, comprising lighthouse, fortifications, yards and urban park, was restored and made accessible to the public between 1995 and 2004.
12th century's building
The first tower, according to some unofficial sources, dates back to medieval times (1128) and was characterised by an architectural structure consisting of three overlapping crenellated trunks. Unfortunately, there are no official records as documents from the 12th century, the first chronicles and official acts of the nascent Genoese municipality, provide reliable data on the tower, but not its exact date of construction. At the top, bundles of dry heather ('brugo') or broom ('brusca') stems were lit in order to signal approaching ships, whose masters had to pay a tax 'pro igne facendo in capite fari' at the time of landing. The tower stood along the connecting road between Genoa and the west, the so-called Via di Francia, which ran along the harbour arch and the Promontory, on the last offshoot of the coast of Sampierdarena, then a holiday resort, overlooked by numerous palaces and noble villas. At the time, the road was probably overlooking the sea and passed by the lighthouse; graphic representations of the road describe it instead in a more recent guise, certainly not prior to the 17th century, passing inside the lighthouse through the so-called 'tagliata', a deep trench dug upstream of the Lanterna. At that time, the Lanterna was therefore relatively far away from the city, and it was not until the 17th century that it was incorporated into the so-called 17th-century Cerchia, the mighty circle of walls almost nineteen kilometres long around the city, almost entirely in existence to this day. One of the prints depicting the two Lanterns (c. 1490).
The tower became a protagonist in the war between the Guelphs and Ghibellines when it was damaged by the latter, who attempted to bring down the Guelphs who had taken refuge inside. This was in 1318, and three years later, in 1321, an initial consolidation was carried out by digging a moat for defence. In 1326, the first lanterns powered by olive oil were installed in both lighthouses to help ships locate the entrance to the city. The first graphic representation of the making of Capo Faro (at least among those that have come down to us) dates back to 1371 and is found on the cover of the parchment entitled Manuale dei Salvatori del Molo e del Porto. Around 1400, the tower also became a prison to house as hostages, for five years, the King of Cyprus, James I of Lusignan, who was imprisoned here with his wife (who gave birth to their son Janus within those walls). To better identify the Lanterna with the city, in 1340 the coat of arms of the Municipality of Genoa was painted on the top of the lower tower, by the painter Evangelista di Milano. In 1405 the Lanterna's guardian priests placed a fish and a gilded metal cross on the dome, a symbol of Christianity, and in 1413 a decree of the 'Consoli del Mare' allocated a fund of '36 lire' to ensure the management of the lighthouse, which had become indispensable for the safety of navigation.
Reconstruction in 1543
In 1507, during a period of French rule over the city, King Louis XII had the 'Fort Briglia' built at the foot of the Lanterna, a fortification to house the garrison of the invading army. From the fort, with the support of a warship that blocked naval traffic, in 1513 the French besieged the port of Genoa, which was later liberated by the Genoese forces led by Andrea Doria, commander of the port and fleet. During this battle, the Lanterna was heavily damaged by friendly bombard fire exploded by the Genoese insurgents against the French rulers. After thirty years, in 1543, the Lanterna was rebuilt at the behest of Doge Andrea Centurione Pietrasanta, who had the work financed by the Banco di San Giorgio. The lighthouse thus assumed its current appearance, stylistically linked to the Renaissance world, by applying projecting corbels to the crowning plinths.
A new lantern with a dome made of oak slats and covered with copper and lead sheets fastened with as many as 600 copper nails was installed. For the occasion, a plaque commemorating the reconstruction was placed at the top of the first tower, inside the gallery. The lantern consisted of a large stained-glass window whose glass panes, of considerable thickness and weight, were supplied, as they had been since 1326, by master glassmakers, first from Liguria and later from Venice. The lantern panes often exploded, cracked or tilted due to the violence of the wind, the oscillations of the tower, the deformation of the iron uprights due to lightning strikes and, not least, due to warlike events, for which they were required in large quantities. The lantern keepers, custodians of the Lanterna or Turrexani of the tower, as they were called in the documents of the time, were required to live with their families inside the tower and "to see to it that the glass was always clear and clean so that the light from the lamp would appear sharp and bright". Throughout history, the Lantern has been struck by lightning several times; the most serious damage occurred in 1481, when lightning struck the tower killing one of the keepers. In 1602, lightning struck the Lantern again, destroying the crenellated part of the upper tower. Following the episode in 1603, a marble plaque was walled at the outer base of the upper tower for propitiatory purposes, bearing the inscription 'Jesus Cristus rex venit in pace at Deus homo factus est'. Today, the ancient plaque is still walled up on the ground at the base of the upper tower, although it is now almost illegible. In 1565, work was again carried out on the dome to make it watertight, and in 1681 the dome was rebuilt with wild chestnut wood, covering it with pitch and tow, and finally with tin-plated lead sheets with overlapping edges.
The French Siege
The Lantern in an aquatint of c. 1810 by Ambroise Louis Garneray. In 1692, the stained glass window destroyed by the bombardment of 1684, carried out by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Marquis of Seignelay and the French Admiral Abraham Duquesne on the orders of King Louis XIV, was rebuilt. Following repeated damage caused by lightning and wartime events, the tower was chained up in 1711 by means of bolts and rods that can still be seen inside today, and in 1791, consolidation work was carried out at the base of the first tower to make it more stable. The construction of a lightning protection system by the physicist Father Glicerio Sanxay dates back to 1778, intended to put an end to the numerous damages caused by lightning over several centuries. It must be said that for centuries lighting was done with metal or glass wick lamps.
The Innovations of the Risorgimento and the 20th Century
In 1840, a rotating optic was built on a wheeled carriage with a Fresnel lens and on 15 January 1841, the new lighting system, the study of which had been carried out by Professor Plana, was switched on and started up. The new system consisted of a lantern with a diameter of 4 metres, dodecagonal in shape with 4 rows of flat crystals on the seaward side, while the upstream side, in the sector between 110° and 290°, was darkened by means of circular copper plates. The base of the lantern rested on the seaward side on lead plates and on the landward side on iron plates; the whole was reinforced with iron uprights and crossbars. The main features were: a fixed white light with a range of 15 miles, to which were superimposed one-minute intervals of glow visible up to about 20 miles. The Lanterna in a late 19th century photo, with the promontory of San Benigno and its barracks Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the lighthouse began to be considered inadequate in relation to the arc of coastline that it was supposed to signal; in 1881 it was even proposed to downgrade it and build a new one on the promontory of Portofino, in this one better suited to the needs of navigation.
This proposal was, however, shelved three years later, because in the light of the new possibilities that technical development allowed, it was possible to adopt the solution of upgrading the Genoa lighthouse so as to obtain coverage of the coast to the east as far as the Tino Lighthouse sector and to the west as far as the Capo Mele Lighthouse sector. After further upgrades in 1898 and 1913, modern electrification took place in 1936. Then in 1956, after the damage received by the US and British air forces in World War II, the old lantern was replaced along with the rotating optics and all the devices. In order not to change the architectural style of the old monument, the dimensions of the new lantern were similar to its 1841 predecessor. At the same time, an emergency power supply system was installed, a freight elevator was installed in the narrow space of the stairwell and the coat of arms of the glorious Maritime Republic on the facade of the lower tower was repainted. As a last noteworthy modification, in 1970 the old engine-weighted rotation system, which remained in place as a reserve, was replaced by an electric rotation system, and following the opening of the Genoa airport, located a few kilometres from the tower, a red flashing light of modest capacity was placed at the top of the Lanterna dome as a warning signal for aircraft. The entire complex, comprising lighthouse, fortifications, yards and urban park, was restored and made accessible to the public between 1995 and 2004.
