‘Insurance’ for Delimara lighthouse restoration

Insurance company GasanMamo is supporting Din l-Art Ħelwa in the final stages of the restoration of the Delimara lighthouse.

Simone Mizzi, DLĦ executive president, acknowledged that the project “has been a huge task” explaining that the isolated and exposed location of the lighthouse and the difficult logistics proved challenging.

The last phase of the job will consist of the restoration of the extensive copper and iron canopy and the lantern itself. These suffered erosion from exposure to the elements but the red and white hand-cut glass prisms of the lantern were damaged by vandals. The beacon clock mechanism, which is being researched, is missing.

DLĦ has already secured the outer masonry of the lighthouse, provided new apertures and security systems and acquired furnishings for the interior. It plans to finish the project by summer 2012 when the lighthouse, which previously housed its keeper and two families, would offer heritage accommodation to the discerning and adventurous visitor.

GasanMamo’s managing director, Albert Mamo, said the company saw a “perfect fit” in the project. “The interpretation we seek to make here is the beacon of light that gives assurance to ships, either to steer clear or confirm their location,” he added.

Commissioned in 1850 by the British administration when maritime traffic from the North African coast to Valletta’s harbour became more frequent, the lighthouse occupies a prime location at the tip of Delimara Point and is the only surviving lighthouse to still exist in Malta, the other one being at Ta’ Ġordan in Gozo.

Until 1896, the lighthouse had a static red lantern but this was replaced by a more powerful gasoline lamp, operated by hand-wound mechanism, that produced beams of alternating red and white light flashed at 30 second intervals. Its arc of visibility ranged from a bearing of 19° to 295° up to a range of 19 nautical miles. This continued to operate till a new electric signal tower was built close by rendering it obsolete. The lighthouse was decommissioned and was devolved to DLĦ by the Malta Maritime Authority.