Said to be “cursed” or haunted, it is now renovated: the Tévennec lighthouse, off the coast of Pointe du Raz (Finistère), has just undergone five months of extraordinary work, in an area of violent currents dotted with islets at water level. Started at the beginning of April, this project was “exceptional in that its environment is very particular”, underlined Sandrine Rolland, director of Ateliers DLB, during an on-site visit.
It is the only lighthouse built on the open sea in France, between Pointe du Raz and the Ile de Sein, at the western end of Brittany. Its commissioning dates back to 1875. “We are in a setting that moves all the time, which is alive, which is both hard but beautiful,” describes Jean-Charles Caraes, works manager for Ateliers DLB. “There is no possible access to the platforms. We cannot moor at Tévennec. We jump there, we jump on the rock and therefore the material goes exclusively by helicopter, ”he continued.
An island difficult to access
Before starting the renovation work, scaffolders and carpenters had to build a platform secured to the rock, in order to transport men and materials by helicopter. A 15 m2 “life base”, providing accommodation for four people with kitchen, shower and WC, was also set up to allow carpenters to spend the week on this islet which is difficult to access by sea.
Sometimes transported by boat, the carpenters had to abandon landing several times, as the sea conditions were so difficult. Once disembarked, they remained on the rock for several days in a row. “We were like lighthouse keepers, except that we didn’t stay the weekend,” said Xavier Jacquillet, wood carpenter.
“The first times I returned to the continent, my friends said to me: But you are in Tévennec, the cursed lighthouse. How is it going then?, he continued. “I told them: I, for the moment, the cursed one, I haven’t seen him well yet, I haven’t felt him. But indeed, it is a pebble, where there is an incessant noise. Maybe that’s what bothered some people (…) to have noise all the time. »
More than 600,000 euros of work
The roof, frame and floors of the house were replaced to clean up this building, which is often attacked by swells. The work, costing more than 600,000 euros, was financed by the maritime intervention fund, created by the ministry of the sea.
Over the next few years, the joinery will be changed, the lantern and its base renovated, and masonry and renovation work carried out by the Lighthouses and Beacons service, the Interregional Directorate of the North Atlantic Sea – Western Channel announced in August (DIRM NAMO).
Twenty-three keepers succeeded one another on the rock over 35 years, until the firehouse was automated in 1910.