Headlight of Cordovan

The headlight of Cordovan is a headlight located at seven kilometers at sea on a rock plate, with the mouth of the Estuaire of the Gironde, estuary formed by the junction of the the Garonne and the the Dordogne, giving in the Atlantic Ocean. It clarifies and makes safe strongly circulation in the two master keys giving access to the estuary: the Great master key of the West, marked out of night, which skirts the northern shore since the bench of Coubre, and the Southern master key, narrower, and which is absolutely not marked out the night.

It is in the department of the the Gironde, in Aquitaine, between the towns of Royan, Vaux-sur-Mer and the Pointe of Low register, on the territory of the commune of the Verdon-on-Sea, on which it is reproduced in the piece number 1 of the land register.

The Headlight of Cordovan, called sometimes the Versailles of the Sea , the Headlight of the kings , or the King of the headlights , was the first building classified historic building in 1862, at the same time as Notre-Dame de Paris.

History

With the Early middle ages, Moors of Cordoue would have installed, with the entry of the estuary of the the Gironde, a commercial counter. To ensure the safety of their vessels, and to enable them to circulate through the dangerous currents of the master keys, they would have built a headlight. The name of the Headlight of Cordovan would be derived from “ Cordoue ”. But no document comes to confirm this assumption.

The circulation of the ships being always also dangerous in this zone, at the 14th century, the Prince Noir ( Edouard de Woodstock ), Prince de Galles and duke of Cornouailles, oldest son of the king Edouard III of England, which controlled the Guyenne 1362 with 1371, ordered the construction of a tower at the top of which a person lived recluse and lit large fires. But, this tower was quickly given up, and two centuries later, it was in ruin.

At the end of the 16th century, the Marshal of Matignon, governor of Guyenne, was worried in its turn of the safety of navigation in the estuary. The March 2nd 1584, in the presence of his/her friend Michel de Montaigne, mayor of Bordeaux, it places order of the headlight of Cordovan to Louis de Foix, engineer-architect. The new work is described as “ royal work ”. Louis de Foix devoted 18 years of its life and all its fortune to the construction of the headlight and will die in 1602 before seeing the end of it. His/her son will take again his succession but ruined, it will transmit the torch to François Beuscher, old section engineer of Louis de Foix who finished his work in 1611, that is to say 27 years after the signature of the contract.

At the time of its startup, at the 16th century, the headlight consisted of a small dome with eight closed bays of stained glasses. In a basin placed on a bronze pedestal, one burned a mixture of wood, pitch and of tar. Smoke was evacuated by a 6,50 m height hollow pyramid. Fire was located at 37 m with the top of the open seas.

In 1645, a violent storm destroyed the pyramid and the dome; this last was restored in 1664, and the fuel was replaced by spermaceti.

In 1719, the upper part of the tower was demolished. It will be rebuilt in 1724 on new levels, which had with the Chevalier of Bitry, chief engineer of the fortifications of Bordeaux.

The first fire with parabolic reverberators saw the day in 1782.

Of 1782 with 1789 the engineer Joseph Teulère suggested raising this tower of 30 meters by preserving the ground floor and the two stages, and this in the Style Louis XVI whose a little dry sobriety contrasts with the richness of the lower stages, which preserved their decoration Renaissance.

Then, in 1790, engineer Teulière, after having raised the headlight to 60 m above the open seas, set at the point the first revolving fire to parabolic reverberators. It consisted of oil lamps, or nozzles of Argand, and was operation by a machine built by Mulotin, clock and watch maker with Dieppe. The fuel was a mixture of spermaceti, of oil and olive oil of colza.

The first lenticular apparatus of Fresnel with revolving system, application of the invention of Augustin-Jean Fresnel, was tested in Cordouan in 1823. The lamp with three concentric wicks, supplied with the oil of colza by means of a suction and force pump, was placed in the “focal plan” of the apparatus.

In 1948, the electrification of the headlight of Cordovan was carried out by means of two autonomous generators - one added a third in 1976 of it - connected to a lamp of 6000W in 110 volts three-phase current. The fixed light, transformed into Light occulting with three coloured sectors, is located at 60,30 m with the top of the open seas.

In 1984, a lamp of 450 W to xenon was installed. But it was replaced three years later by a lamp of 2000W to the halogens

Between March and November 2005, an armor of reinforced concrete 70 meters length and 8 meters height was built around the western side of the shield, in order to best protect from the attacks of the swell of west, which involved vibrations endangering the structure of the headlight. The work, completed by the company Guintoli , cost approximately 4,5 million euros.

Features

The headlight of Cordovan is a 68 meters high white tower, out of white stone of Saintonge, one diameter at the base of 16 meters, placed at 7 km in Mer on a rock plate, at equal distance from the coasts of the Charente-Maritime and the Gironde.

Approximately 300 stones of size were extracted from the close Charente-native coasts to build the base of the tower, and one can still observe the many coal faces on the rocks with Saint-Palate-on-Sea, and in particular close to the peninsula known as of the Pont of the Devil.

At the time of its construction, the rock plate of Cordovan, formerly called island of Cordovan , rose few meters above the sea level, including with high tide, which made possible the construction of the “ turn of the Moors ”, then headlight in itself. Today, such a construction would be not easily realizable.

Indeed, with the wire of the centuries, the plate underwent the fast erosion caused by the movements and the spray of the ocean and the estuary, and it is from now on under water most of the time, except with low tide by Vives water, which makes a danger zone besides of it for sea transport or of pleasure to broad of the estuary.

The reduction in the rock plate explains mainly the increased vulnerability of the structure and the work undertaken in 2005 on the shield. Indeed, at the time of its construction, the waves could not reach the building, which is quite different today. Work on the shield will have thus lasted more than six months, because the 40 workmen could work only during the low tides, that is to say approximately 4 hours per day.

Its geographical position is:

Its fire is located at 60 meters height. It is produced by a halogenous Lampe of 2000 W, rythmée electronically, which made it possible to remove the mask and the mechanization of rotation. Its range is of 22 marine miles for the white sector and of 18 for the sectors red and green It is a Light occulting (2 and 1) in 12 seconds:

Sectors:

white of 14° with 126°
green of 126° with 178,5°
white of 178,5° with 250°
white attenuated red 25° with 267°
attenuated red 267° with 294.5°
of 294,5° with 14°

Description of installations

The tower comprises six stages.

To the ground floor, a monumental gate gives access to the hall, from where share a staircase of 311 steps.

On the first floor the apartment is known as “ apartment of the King ”, there although no king never came to remain. It was arranged only in 1664 by Colbert, the minister of Louis XIV. It is a part arched, equipped with a true chimney, and paved black and white marble, decorated with pilasters to the monograms of Louis XIV and the queen Marie-Therese.

The vault, which is the most majestic part of the headlight, is to the second. She is surmounted by a bored vault of eight richly decorated bays. The two stained glasses, carried out at the time of the construction of the vault, were restored recently. Each year, of the marriages are celebrated there.

The third stage opens on a big room luminous, known as “ room of Of Gironde the ”, paved black and white marble. It is the first level resulting from the work of heightening of the headlight undertaken by Joseph Teulère, since which one can observe the complex architecture of the tower and broad the staircase which leads to the lantern. The fourth and fifth stages are used as stages.

Between the fifth and the sixth the room of quarter is, covered with a parquet floor of oak, which was formerly furnished with two beds with alcoves for the use of the guards.

With the sixth, finally, the lantern is. Before the electrification, in 1948, one assembled fuels by means of a pulley there, by the openings approximately a meter in diameter bored in the center of each stage of the headlight.

The headlight of Cordovan entered in service in 1611 and, since this date, of the generations of guards followed one another there.

Today still, the headlight of Cordovan remains the last French headlight on which live and work of the guards. Carrying out bearings among a team of three people, the two guards present on the headlight deal primarily of maintenance, cleaning, and the reception of the visitors come in boat from the coasts Charente-native or of Gironde.

In preparation for the total automation of the headlight, guarding should however end in 2008, which will put a term at the human presence on Cordouan.

Random links: