The Kingdom of Spain occupies nearly 85% of the Iberian Peninsula in southeastern Europe with coastlines facing south and southeast on the Mediterranean Sea and northwest on the Atlantic Ocean. Spain also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic, and the cities of Ceuta and Melilla on the north coast of Morocco. Since 1978 Spain has been divided into 17 regions called autonomous communities (comunidads autónoma) that have been granted varying degrees of autonomy by the central government. The autonomous communities are subdivided into provinces (provincias). This page includes lighthouses of two of Spain's eastern regions, including the provinces of Castellón, Valencia, Alicante, and Murcia. The Región de Murcia is an autonomous community as well as a province while the remaining three provinces form another autonomous community called the Comunidad Valenciana. This coastline faces southeast on the Mediterranean, bordering Andalusia to the south and Catalonia to the north. The word for a lighthouse is faro in Spanish but its use is generally restricted to the larger coastal light stations. Smaller lighthouses are called balizas (beacons). In Spanish isla is an island, cabo is a cape, punta is a promontory or point of land, péñon is a rock, arrecife is a reef, bahía is a bay, ría is an estuary or inlet, estrecho is a strait, río is a river, and puerto is a port or harbor. In the Valencian Community many people speak Valencian, a language closely related to Catalan. In Catalan the word for a lighthouse is far, balisa is a beacon, illa is an island, cap is a cape, punt is a promontory or point of land, roca is a rock, escull is a reef, badia is a bay, ria is an estuary or inlet, estret is a strait, riu is a river, and port is a port or harbor. The navigational lights in Spain are the responsibility of the national port authority, Puertos del Estado, but many of them are operated and maintained by regional port authorities. The Comisión de Faros, founded in 1842 to build and maintain Spanish lighthouses, is now an advisory panel. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. ES numbers are from the Spanish national list of lights, Libro de Faros. Admiralty numbers are from volume E of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 113.
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Castellón Province Lighthouses
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Valencia Province Lighthouses
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Alicante Province Lighthouses
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Murcia Region Lighthouses
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Catalonia | East: Ibiza and Formentera | West: Eastern Andalusia
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Posted February 20, 2006. Checked and revised June 10, 2024. Lighthouses: 45. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.