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The Lighthouses of Europe
are the most salient feature of the European civilizations with
the oldest history of navigation in the world. Following the west
east and north south naval routes the sailors have conveyed for
centuries goods and culture under the beam of light of the lighthouses.
Plenty of values are incorporated in them: History, Legend, Architecture,
and Old maritime technology, Natural Beauty, Serviceability.
The existing Old Lighthouses are dated from 17 th century and
most of them were built on the period of
18 th – 19 th centuries. As we know from research on 17 th to 19
th century manuscripts, the networks of the lighthouse around the
Mediterranean, the North and the Baltic Sea were even then really
extensive. The Lighthouse Service is responsible for their maintenance
and function. After the Second World War some of these Lighthouse
networks were rehabilitated, in inappropriate way in most cases.
However, only the last decade they started considering them as parts
of maritime culture heritage. To this direction any effort to maintain
their authentic physiognomy encountered a lot of difficulties such
as:
- The characterization of Old Lighthouse as culture
heritage item.
- The accessibility. Lighthouses are often situated
on isolated places and exposed to hard weathering
conditions and seawater erosion.
- They present specific pathology problems due
to sea salt attack and weathering, or to their
architecture.
- The knowledge in relation to the selection of
suitable repair materials is not adequate.
There is lack of policy for enhancing the values of the Lighthouses.
Apart from the case studies, partners have agreed
to study the pathology of other Historic lighthouses
in order to enrich the record of damages often happening
to lighthouses.
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