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 southwest 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. This page describes lighthouses of the central part of Spain's northern coast, including the provinces of Asturias and Cantabria. This is a beautiful coastline where mountains drop steeply into the sea and occasional water gaps create small sheltered harbors. There are also two major ports on this coast, Santander in Cantabria and Gijón in Asturias. Spain is divided into 17 regions called autonomous communities (comunidades autónomas); Asturias and Cantabria are two of these communities. In general autonomous communities are divided into provinces, but Asturias and Cantabria are themselves provinces. Both are subdivided into districts called comarcas. The word for a lighthouse is faro in Spanish and faru in Asturian, but its use is generally restricted to the larger coastal light stations. In Spanish, smaller lighthouses are called balizas (beacons) or farolas. 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. 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 D of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 113.
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Lighthouses of Asturias
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![]() Cabo de Torres Light, Gijón, July 2024 Google Maps photo by Raúl Ramos Solar |
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Lighthouses of Cantabria
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: East: Basque Country | West: Northern Galicia
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Posted November 18, 2005. Checked and revised September 15, 2024. Lighthouses: 36. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.