HERITAGE: Built in 1876, the ten-metre-high building is one of the very last existing Eiffel lighthouses
- Restored for several months, the Eiffel lighthouse in Moguériec has finally returned to the Finistère port.
- It is one of only three lighthouses Gustave Eiffel built in France.
- Built-in 1876, the lighthouse was first installed in the port of Honfleur before joining Brittany in 1960.
The third attempt will have been the good one. Early Friday morning, the lighthouse of Moguériec, a small fishing port located in the north of Finistère, made its big return to the pier which it had left in September 2021 to be restored. Symbol of the town, this lighthouse of about ten meters in height has the particularity of being one of the very last existing Eiffel lighthouses. Built-in 1876 in the Eiffel workshops of Levallois-Perret, it was installed the same year in the port of Honfleur in Normandy.
After escaping the bombardments of the Second World War and becoming unusual, it was finally installed in 1960 in the port of Moguériec, then the leading lobster port in France. “It was paid for by the fishermen with the establishment of a tax on the value of the fish landed”, says Arnaud Lampire, president of the association Save the lighthouse of Moguériec .
Only three Eiffel lighthouses remain in France
But over the years, the wear of the headlight was felt. Threatened to disappear, the monument was finally saved thanks in particular to the support of the inhabitants who financed its restoration. A six-month makeover was operated at the Crézé metalwork in Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande near Rennes. “It’s really an Eiffel-style lighthouse with the same rivets as the Eiffel Tower,” said works supervisor Olivier Thébault, observing the green and white building. “We have the original ears, the railings, the dome, the interior staircase, the weather vane… Two-thirds are original, we have kept everything we could,” he says.
Of the twelve Eiffel lighthouses built and installed in France between 1875 and 1878, only three remain today: in Menton, in Fromentine ( Vendée ) and therefore in Moguériec. “Seeing him on the quay is great, it’s great. Really, it’s a relief, ”rejoiced Marie-Line Bruneau, who came from Normandy to attend this reunion. “The lighthouse is the symbol of the area, we absolutely wanted it,” she explained.
