In 1861, after many ships had been lost entering the lagoon, Paris was asked to build a lighthouse for Noumea. M. Rigolet, the French engineer from Butte Chaumont constructed this veritable monument in 1862.
However, according to one of the clauses in M. Rigolet's contract, the lighthouse had to be assembled at his workshop in France. For two years outside M. Rigolet's workshop, the lighthouse dominated Paris standing 56 meters tall. After which it was disassembled into 1,265 pieces for a total weight of 387,953 kilos and then transported on the Seine River to the port of Havre for the voyage to its final destination, New Caledonia.
After ten months of incident-free labor by military personnel and indigenous workers, it was erected on Amedee Island. It was first lit on the 15th of November 1865, the saint day of the Empress Eugene, wife of Napoleon III. Its light signals the entrance to the passage of Boulari, one of only three natural passages in the reef surrounding New Caledonia.
With a height of 56 meters, Amedee lighthouse dominates the small Island, measuring 400 meters long and 270 meters wide, situated 24 kilometers from Noumea. To admire the magnificent panorama the most courageous brave the 247 steps of the superb cast iron staircase, which leads to the top. On the other side of the world, more exactly at Roches-Sur-Douvres, the twin brother of the Amedee lighthouse guards over navigators of the Manche.
Constructed two years after the Amedee lighthouse, it was the star attraction of the universal exposition of Paris in 1867 on the Champ de Mars. Phare Amedee Lighthouse is indeed a unique attraction and one of the tallest lighthouses in the world in the world's largest lagoon.
(P.S. Phare means Lighthouse in French)
