The Direção de Faróis (Portuguese Lighthouse Directorate) is the Portuguese technical authority for maritime signalling and positioning. Created by a decree on 23 May 1924, in response to the significant increase in the number of lighthouses and maritime signalling systems, its objectives were to centralise responsibility for all Aids to Navigation in Portugal and oversee the management of lighthouse staffing.
To effectively fulfil its mission, this hundred-year-old organisation has 35 military, 44 militarised and 18 civil personnel, in addition to 104 dedicated lighthouse keepers, distributed across a network of 30 lighthouses on the mainland, 16 in the Azores and 7 in Madeira. Since 1961, the Portuguese Lighthouse Directorate has also been in charge of the Building of Command and the School of Lighthouse Keepers.
In fulfilling its mission, and always keeping in mind good practices for environmental sustainability, the Portuguese Lighthouse Directorate has twice won the National Defence and Environment Prize, a milestone in the environmental awareness of the Portuguese Armed Forces, with the projects “Solar Energy at the Berlenga Lighthouse” and “The contribution of the National Maritime Authority, supported by the Navy, to the protection and defence of the Natural Reserve of the Selvagens Islands”, in 2001 and 2019, respectively.