Alexandroupolis Lighthouse: A Short History
Built in 1880, the city's most photographed landmark still guides ships in from the Thracian Sea.
Before it was Alexandroupolis, the city was a small Ottoman fishing settlement called Dedeagach. The lighthouse — completed in 1880 by French engineers — predates most of the city around it, and at over 32 metres, it remains the tallest lighthouse in Greece.
It was built to mark the approach to what was becoming an important rail and port town, as the Ottoman railway network reached the coast here. The tower survived two World Wars and several changes of hands between empires and states before the city settled into modern Greece.
Today the light still operates, automated, guiding ferries and fishing boats past the shallows. The square around its base — repaved with marble in recent years — is the unofficial living room of the city: locals meet here in the evening, and every sunset draws a small, informal audience.
It's free to walk right up to the base, though the tower itself isn't open to climb. The best photographs come from the promenade just after sunrise or in the hour before sunset, when the low sun turns the pale stone gold.
