We’d venture to say that few Lisbon residents know the Bugio Lighthouse as well as they’d like. For example, have you ever visited it?
Away from almost everyone, anyone who looks at the Tagus horizon can easily see him, there alone “controlling” who enters and leaves the city by sea.
In the next few lines you’ll learn a little more about this symbol of Lisbon, its history and what state it’s in today.
Strategic coastal defense
This lighthouse owes its name to the fact that it is located in the Fort of São Lourenço do Bugio, at the mouth of the River Tagus, which is also known as the Fort of São Lourenço da Cabeça Seca or Bugio’s Tower.
It was built here as part of the strategy to defend the Portuguese coastline in general and the port of Lisbon in particular in the 16th century, around 1590.
The various attacks by French and Turkish pirates in 1552 and 1556 only further highlighted the need to strengthen the defense of our territory, and the fortification of the Fort of São Julião da Barra was increased in 1556 and 1559.
First João Vicenzo Casale, from Naples, and then Leonardo Turriano, also of Italian origin, started work on the construction of the Fort of São Lourenço da Cabeça Seca in 1643, and it is assumed that it was completed in 1657 or shortly afterwards.
The main purpose of building this fort was to defend the coastline, which is why it was equipped with 14 24-caliber pieces, 12 12-caliber pieces and one six-caliber piece, all made of bronze.
Where the Bugio Lighthouse stands today, the Bugio Tower stood tall and acted as a lookout during the day and a lighthouse at night.
According to information from the National Maritime Authority,
The structure of the lighthouse consisted of a circular stone lantern with vertical, glazed openings, through which the fragile light produced by lamps powered by olive oil or animal fat was filtered. The lantern was closed by a stone dome, of the campaniform type, through which the smoke from the lamps drained.
The lighthouse and the earthquake
O 1755 earthquake in Lisbon had major implications for the fort. The tower was destroyed and only rebuilt in 1775, 20 years later.
The Bugio Lighthouse was one of the six lighthouses ordered to be built by the Marquis of Pombal.
The history of the Bugio Lighthouse
We already know its origin. In the next few lines you’ll learn more about its history, the history of the lighthouse itself and the state it’s in today.
In 1751, the Bugio Lighthouse was powered by olive oil, which was replaced by gas and later, in 1946, by oil vapor.
In July 1957, the Fort and the Tower of São Lourenço were classified as a building of public interest, recognizing their historical and cultural values.
Since then, there have been many significant improvements to the site, including the electrification of the lighthouse in 1959, when generator sets were installed with a 500W/110V bulb.
A year later, in 1960, a new sound signal, the nautophone, came into operation.
No lighthouse keeper since 1982
Around 1890, the fort was inhabited by a garrison of men whose purpose was to maintain the lighthouse.
There were six men, lighthouse keepers, who lived in Bugio all year round, some of them accompanied by their families.
Their isolation on this artificial “island” was only broken when they had to go ashore to buy supplies.
It is also said that around the beginning of the 20th century, the lighthouse keepers’ state of isolation was alleviated by silting up in the southern part of the Tagus bar, and there are reports of pilgrimages from the villages that lived along the river to the Fort’s chapel.
From the 1960s onwards, there were more lighthouse keepers and a system of rotation began with two teams of three who worked four and four shifts days, whenever the sea conditions allowed.
More than 20 years later, in 1981, the optical device was replaced by an automatic mechanism that allowed it to rotate, and a remote signaling system and a fog detector were also installed.
The Bugio Lighthouse is now controlled remotely from the Lighthouse Management Center.
As a result of this automation and the remote control system, in 1982 the Bugio Lighthouse no longer needed a lighthouse keeper.
A more modern headlight
The next major changes to the Bugio Lighthouse would not take place until 1994, when a new solar-powered optical lantern was installed.
However, it was only between 1997 and 2001, under the auspices of the Directorate-General for National Buildings and Monuments, that work was carried out to make the site more robust, through the shoring up of the fort, the restoration of the stone masonry, the masonry and the walls, as well as the construction of a robust circular jetty and a new mooring pier.
Is it possible to visit?
On the website of the National Maritime Authority, from where we gathered most of this information, you can see that this is one of the few lighthouses in Portugal that is not open to the public.
We were told, however, that a Oeiras Cultural Association Space and Memory i would make occasional visits to this place during the year.
However, we were unable to contact the association to find out more details about how to schedule one of these visits.