St. Philips Castle

St. Philip's Castle was a post guarding the passage to the port of Mahon. It is situated in the district of Es Castell, on the island of Menorca. It was revamped by British powers during the 1760s, around a prior Spanish fortification, the Castell de San Felipe, which had been built up around 1554. It is best known for its unsuccessful resistance on two events by the British, amid the Siege of Fort St Philip 1756 and the Invasion of Minorca, 1781. Following the last occasion, the stronghold was incompletely obliterated. The disadvantage of the site was that it was in the immediate line of flame from the military battery based at the castle.

The attendants of the beacon were cautioned when discharging practice was to occur yet they griped that the shells harmed the building and frightened their families. The circumstance proceeded until 1912, when the beacon was shut and supplanted with a moveable light on a metal davit. This was brought down amid terminating practice, and raised at different occasions to a give a scope of 9.5 nautical miles. During the 1970s the moveable light was supplanted by a post light, mounted on a 15m high solid pinnacle painted with high contrast groups, giving an all-inclusive scope of 13 nautical miles. The old beacon was at last crushed in 1917, sections of which being reused in the development of the new beacon at Favaritx.