A 113-year-old lighthouse on Pengjia Islet (彭佳嶼) off Keelung is to be granted national cultural heritage status, Keelung Cultural Affairs Bureau Director Chen Ching-ping (陳靜萍) said on Sunday.
The Ministry of Culture late last year declared the structure eligible for the designation, Chen wrote on Facebook.
Completed in 1909, the lighthouse played an important role in Taiwan’s maritime history and remains in service, despite having been bombed by Allied Forces airplanes during World War II, Chen said.
Photo: screen grab from Facebook
Bullet marks from the attack can still be seen, she said.
Ministry and Keelung City Government officials inspecting the lighthouse had a “rough voyage” to the islet, Chen said.
The designation would come after the Keelung Lighthouse, which is nine years older, received heritage status last year, Chen said, adding that tourists cannot access the lighthouse, as it is also still in use.
The Pengjia Islet Lighthouse is a 26.2m white brick structure with a cylindrical top rising from an octagonal base, the Ministry of Culture said.
Its beacon — produced by the now-defunct French firm Barbier, Benard et Turenne — utilizes the largest glass Fresnel lens in Taiwan, after the formerly used diesel lantern was retired as the last of its kind in the country, the ministry said.
Maritime and Port Bureau Maritime Safety Division head Sheng Shu-hsian (沈淑賢) said that it takes three hours by boat to reach the islet, about 55km off Keelung.
The section assigns four keepers to the lighthouse, who must bring daily necessities to the islet when they rotate for duty each month, while fuel and spare parts for the facility are resupplied about every two weeks, Sheng said.
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