The Siege and Beacon of St. Philip's Castle

St. Philip's Castle, also known as Fort St Phillip, was a fortress guarding the entrance to the port of Mahón in Es Castell, Menorca. British forces rebuilt the structure in the 1760s around an earlier Spanish fort, the Castell de Sant Felip, which had been established about 1554. The castle is best known for its unsuccessful defenses during the Siege of Fort St Philip in 1756 and the Invasion of Minorca in 1781. Following the latter event, the castle was partly demolished.

Because of its commanding position overlooking the harbour entrance, a lighthouse was built in 1852 at the Sant Carles point near the fort. This light was contained within a 16m masonry tower rising from a single storey house. However, the site was in the direct line of fire from the military battery based at the castle. Lighthouse keepers complained that shells damaged the building and alarmed their families until 1912, when the lighthouse was closed and replaced with a moveable light on a metal davit.

The moveable light could be lowered during firing practice and raised to provide a range of 9.5 nautical miles. In the 1970s, this was replaced by a post light mounted on a 15m high concrete tower painted with black and white bands, extending the range to 13 nautical miles. The old lighthouse was finally demolished in 1917, with parts of it being reused in the construction of a new lighthouse at Favàritx.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons