The charismatic little Tourlitis
Lighthouse is beautifully perched on the islet of Tourlitis, a chunk of rock
opposite the harbor at Chora, on Andros Island. The lighthouse is situated
about 200 meters out to the sea. This is Greece’s first modern lighthouse and
the most striking lighthouse in the world. A flight of stairs carved into the
rocks lead to the lighthouse.
The Tourlitis Lighthouse is the only Greek
lighthouse to be built completely by Greek hands, and also the nation’s only
wave-swept rock sentinel, visible to the brunt of heavy seas. This is the first
automatic lighthouse of the Greek lighthousing system, as the lighthouse keeper
doesn't really reside there. The history tells us, the first lighthouse here
was built in 1897.
However it was destroyed after the Second
Word War, a simple scaffold tower was erected on Tourlitis. The present
lighthouse is a striking replica of the original, and was built in 1990s at the
expenses of Alexandros Goulandris, an oil tycoon of Andros Island. Goulandris
and his wife devoted the lighthouse in memory of their deceased daughter
Violanda.
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