*Portugal | Remembering Letters and Postcards

Cabo da Roca, Portugal

Sintra, Costa de Lisboa

Cabo da Roca – Cape Roca – the most western point in Europe
The place where the lands ends and sea begins.

Cabo da Roca1772. Active; focal plane 165 m (541 ft); four white flashes every 18 s. 22 m (72 ft) square stone tower, rising from a 1-story keeper’s complex. 3rd order Fresnel lens in use since 1946. Tower painted white with unpainted stone trim; lantern painted red. João Campos’s photo is at right, Lighthouse Explorer has a good photo by Paulo Domingos, Trabas has an excellent photo, Guyomard and Carceller have many fine photos, Marinas.com has aerial photos, Huelse has a historic postcard view, and Google has a satellite view. This was the first Portuguese lighthouse built “from scratch,” although several earlier lights were installed in existing buildings. Spain’s Cabo Finisterre (see the Western Galicia page) and Portugal’s Cabo de São Vicente (see above) may be more famous as western endpoints of Europe, but Cabo da Roca, the “Cape of the Rock” is actually the westernmost point of the Eurasian continent (at 9° 29.8′ W). The Romans called the cape Promontorium Magnum–the Great Cape. In 1997 the town council of Sintra erected a plaque at the lighthouse that reads in part, “Cabo da Roca: Onde a terra se acaba e o mar começa” (Here ends the land and begins the sea), a line from the famous poet Luís de Camões. Despite this geographical significance, the light here is not as important to navigators as the lights of Cabo Carvoeiro to the north and Cabo Raso to the south. As a result, the lighthouse was long neglected; not until 1897 did it have a Fresnel lens, and for the next 50 years it had only a fourth order lens. The station is staffed by a crew of three keepers. It is surrounded by a national park, the Parque Natural de Sintra-Cascais. Located atop a spectacular headland at Azóia, about 12 km (7.5 mi) west of Sintra. Site open, tower closed. Accessible by road, and parking is provided. ARLHS POR-007; PT-186; Admiralty D2108; NGA 3376. – The Lighthouse Directory