Lighthouse on Palagruža islet

Palagruza lighthouse was built in 1875 under Austro-Hungarian Monarchy on the island of the same name, placed in the middle of the Adriatic Sea, between the Italian and Croatian coasts, 68 NM south of Split and 26 NM south of the island of Lastovo. This lighthouse, far out in the Adriatic, is the largest and also among the oldest in Dalmatia. The island itself is uninhabited, except by lighthouse staff and occasional summer tourists. During the construction of the lighthouse on Palagruža in 1874 a quarry on the northern part of the Salamandrija plateau was open for exploitation. It soon became evident that it would be impossible to build the lighthouse from the dolomite rock native to Palagruža, due to its thick and hard structure which ruined many a piece of stonemasons’ equipment. After only two rows of native dolomite Palagruza stone blocks were used in the construction process to build the bottom part of the lighthouse, it became clear that dolomite was not suitable for the rest of the building. It was then decided to continue building with a lighter stone imported from the island of Korčula, which significantly increased the costs of construction. In the deeper layers of this stone quarry on Palagruža, a layer of volcanic ash was found.