Colonia del Sacramento Lighthouse

The lighthouse at the western tip of the Barrio Histórico peninsula is a landmark visible from the river for miles around. Completed in 1857, it is built partly on the ruins of the 17th-century convent of San Francisco Xavier — you can see the old convent walls surrounding the base of the tower, slowly being reclaimed by grass and vegetation.

The lighthouse is still operational, and the views from the top are the best in Colonia: the Barrio Histórico spread below, the wide expanse of the Río de la Plata in front, and on clear days Buenos Aires visible as a thin smudge of buildings on the far shore. The climb (97 steps) is easy. The attached colonial building at the base houses a small interpretive display about the lighthouse and the convent.

The area around the lighthouse — lawns, the old convent ruins, the Portón de Campo fort just to the east — is a pleasant place to walk in the late afternoon, when the light on the river turns golden and the crowds begin to thin.

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A story
The lighthouse was built in 1857 on the ruins of the convent of San Francisco Xavier, which had been dynamited by the Spanish after the Portuguese rebuilt it, leaving only the walls. Rather than clear the ruins entirely, the lighthouse engineers simply built their new tower on and around the old convent walls — an unusual piece of engineering economy that gives the lighthouse its distinctive look of a tower rising from a ruined church.

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