The largest island in the Mediterranean, Sicily is separated from the tip of the Italian peninsula by the narrow Strait of Messina. Known as Sicilia in Italian, the island has an ancient history and has had many rulers. By the early nineteenth century the Kingdom of Sicily and the mainland Kingdom of Naples had been united under a Bourbon monarchy as the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. During Italy's unification the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was conquered by Sardinia in 1860-61 and incorporated in the new Kingdom of Italy in 1861. Today the island is an autonomous region of the Italian Republic. Sicily is divided into nine provinces, eight of which include portions of the coastline. This page includes lighthouses of the three western provinces of Agrigento, Trapani, and Palermo. Lighthouses of Messina, Catania, Siracusa, and Ragusa are on the Eastern Sicily page. The Italian word for a lighthouse is faro, plural fari. This name is usually reserved for the larger coastal lights; smaller beacons are called fanali. In Italian isola is an island, isolotto is an islet, secca is a shoal, scoglio is a rock, cabo is a cape, punta is a point of land, baia is a bay, stretto is a strait, fiume is a river, and porto is a harbor. Aids to navigation in Italy are operated and maintained by the Italian Navy's Servizio dei Fari e del Segnalamento Marittimo (Lighthouse and Maritime Signal Service). Lighthouse properties are naval reservations, generally fenced and closed to the public. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. EF numbers are from the Italian Navy's light list, Elenco dei Fari e Segnali da Nebbia. Admiralty numbers are from volume E of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 113.
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Agrigento Province Lighthouses
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![]() Capo Grecale Light, Lampedusa, August 2006 Flickr Creative Commons photo by Giorgio Cardellini (no longer online) |
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![]() San Giacomo Light, Licata, July 2014 ex-Panoramio photo copyright Arno Siering used by permission |
Trapani Province Lighthouses
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![]() San Vito lo Capo Light, San Vito lo Capo, September 2008 Wikimedia Creative Commons photo by giomodica |
Palermo Province Lighthouses
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![]() Palermo Light, Palermo, October 2014 photo copyright Capt. Peter Mosselberger; used by permission |
Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining page: East: Eastern Sicily
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Posted July 18, 2006. Checked and revised November 12, 2020. Lighthouses: 37. Site copyright 2020 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.