Chapter The Historic Lighthouses of the Italian Coasts

The tall tower building with an intense light source on the top, visible far away, called a lighthouse in English, takes its name in the Romance languages of faro. The fuels used to produce lighting have progressively adapted to the times: bundles of dry wood, olive oil, wax candles, sperm whale fat...

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Main Authors: Benincasa, Fabrizio, De Vincenzi, Matteo, Fasano, Gianni
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: Firenze University Press 2025
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Online Access:ONIX_20250801T173835_9791221505566_301
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author Benincasa, Fabrizio
De Vincenzi, Matteo
Fasano, Gianni
author_browse Benincasa, Fabrizio
De Vincenzi, Matteo
Fasano, Gianni
author_facet Benincasa, Fabrizio
De Vincenzi, Matteo
Fasano, Gianni
author_sort Benincasa, Fabrizio
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description The tall tower building with an intense light source on the top, visible far away, called a lighthouse in English, takes its name in the Romance languages of faro. The fuels used to produce lighting have progressively adapted to the times: bundles of dry wood, olive oil, wax candles, sperm whale fat, paraffin oil, acetylene, arriving to electricity. The lighthouses didn’t only have positive aspects; in fact, they not only facilitated bearings during night navigation, but also indicated to the pirates the coastal cities to plunder. This gave rise to a sort of "land piracy" as "prankster" characters lit "fake beacons" on reefs, shoals, etc. waters where ships were stranded and were therefore more easily plundered. This work shows the current number of lighthouses in Italy, giving greater emphasis to the Italian historic lighthouses, which, by definition, are those that meet at least three of the characteristics established by IALA. As in other European countries, also in Italy the lighthouse lantern was often placed on the top of bell towers of the churches along the coastline. The oldest Italian lighthouses are on the Tyrrhenian coast the lighthouse of Rome Port and on the Adriatic coast the lighthouse of Ravenna Port. Obviously, we will only mention the lighthouses, which in our opinion are the most important and given the historicity of these we will only deal with the "bright" lighthouses, outlining the historical-geographical context within which they were built.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-1633642025-08-02T05:04:34Z Chapter The Historic Lighthouses of the Italian Coasts Benincasa, Fabrizio De Vincenzi, Matteo Fasano, Gianni Ancient lighthouses Navigation Ancient Meteorology Sailing techniques The tall tower building with an intense light source on the top, visible far away, called a lighthouse in English, takes its name in the Romance languages of faro. The fuels used to produce lighting have progressively adapted to the times: bundles of dry wood, olive oil, wax candles, sperm whale fat, paraffin oil, acetylene, arriving to electricity. The lighthouses didn’t only have positive aspects; in fact, they not only facilitated bearings during night navigation, but also indicated to the pirates the coastal cities to plunder. This gave rise to a sort of "land piracy" as "prankster" characters lit "fake beacons" on reefs, shoals, etc. waters where ships were stranded and were therefore more easily plundered. This work shows the current number of lighthouses in Italy, giving greater emphasis to the Italian historic lighthouses, which, by definition, are those that meet at least three of the characteristics established by IALA. As in other European countries, also in Italy the lighthouse lantern was often placed on the top of bell towers of the churches along the coastline. The oldest Italian lighthouses are on the Tyrrhenian coast the lighthouse of Rome Port and on the Adriatic coast the lighthouse of Ravenna Port. Obviously, we will only mention the lighthouses, which in our opinion are the most important and given the historicity of these we will only deal with the "bright" lighthouses, outlining the historical-geographical context within which they were built. 2025-08-02T05:04:33Z 2025-08-02T05:04:33Z 2025-08-01T15:59:21Z 2024 chapter ONIX_20250801T173835_9791221505566_301 2975-0288 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/104851 9791221505566 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/163364 eng Monitoring of Mediterranean Coastal Areas: Problems and Measurement Techniques open access image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/104851/1/43694.pdf Firenze University Press 10.36253/979-12-215-0556-6.49 10.36253/979-12-215-0556-6.49 2ec4474d-93b1-4cfa-b313-9c6019b51b1a 9791221505566 16 Florence open access
spellingShingle Ancient lighthouses Navigation
Ancient Meteorology
Sailing techniques
Benincasa, Fabrizio
De Vincenzi, Matteo
Fasano, Gianni
Chapter The Historic Lighthouses of the Italian Coasts
title Chapter The Historic Lighthouses of the Italian Coasts
title_full Chapter The Historic Lighthouses of the Italian Coasts
title_fullStr Chapter The Historic Lighthouses of the Italian Coasts
title_full_unstemmed Chapter The Historic Lighthouses of the Italian Coasts
title_short Chapter The Historic Lighthouses of the Italian Coasts
title_sort chapter the historic lighthouses of the italian coasts
topic Ancient lighthouses Navigation
Ancient Meteorology
Sailing techniques
topic_facet Ancient lighthouses Navigation
Ancient Meteorology
Sailing techniques
url ONIX_20250801T173835_9791221505566_301
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