For two-thousand years, the Tower of Hercules, the world’s oldest functioning lighthouse, has been illuminating the waters of the Atlantic from the “Finisterrae” of continental Europe. On the other side of the ocean, on the Eastern coast of America, since 1886, the same waters are illuminated by the torch of Liberty Enlightening the World, known worldwide as Statue of Liberty.

The relationship between the Tower of Hercules and the Statue of Liberty, between Corunna and New York, corresponds perfectly with the legend on the origin of the Tower and the achievements of the first settlers. Let us remember that according to the Leabhar Gabhála, the Book of the Conquest of Ireland, the children of the great Celtic ruler Breogán sighted Ireland from the highest point of the Tower of Hercules, setting sail from below the cliffs of the peninsula that was home to the Celtic expedition that conquered Ireland, an expedition that was guided to its destiny in the distant island by this eternal lighthouse.

The descendants of those first settlers of Ireland, who came from the Tower of Hercules, have had, and continue to have, a decisive role in the development of the United States in general, and of New York City in particular, millions of Irish having emigrated to America throughout history.

In New York, on the other hand, the colony of Galician emigrants is certainly numerous, existing, for many years, an influential and dynamic “Casa de Galicia” (House of Galicia). Millions of emigrants and seamen worldwide have carried engraved in their retinas the sparkles of the last rays of the Tower of Hercules as if a treasure in their Atlantic passage, until the new brilliance, that of the Statue of Liberty, woke them upon their arrival in the New World, just as the sunlight after setting in Corunna travels each day toward America to greet the inhabitants of New York with a good morning.

Those events marked a whole generation of Galicians who anxiously turned their sight towards the New World, and from the Artabrian Gulf and Promontory in Corunna, initiated a long exodus to Ellis Island, leaving behind on one shore the Tower of Hercules, arriving at another shore where the Statue of Liberty, desired goal, received them as the protector of all those who after so many deprivations, displeasures, and tears for what they had left behind, concluded their crossing sorrowfully but with the illusion and the hope of a better life in the presence of what is even today for many, The Mother of the Exiles.

Such symbiosis is the result of the coexistence of the different human groups that adopted a common nexus to reach the American dream, which can be dramatized in the union of Hercules and Lady Liberty, lighthouse and statue that doubtlessly represent the strength of human beings to share common scenes in freedom.

With the beginning of the third millennium, the moment has arrived for these two symbols of liberty and maritime navigation, Tower and Statue, Statue and Tower, that may somehow be considered two sisters separated by the waters of the Atlantic, are united forever, officially and with all the honors, and that this twinning serve as an emblem of the union of the Old and New Worlds.

A link with history

The concomitances between the Statue of Liberty and the Tower of Hercules may seem, at first sight, minor, a detailed study of both monuments, of the relationship maintained throughout history by the cities that lodge them demonstrate that on the symbolic as well as on the formal level, the existing bonds between the mentioned structures turn out to be much greater that those which could at first be suspected.

The Statue and the Tower have in relation to two of the seven legendary works (Colossus of Rhodes and the Lighthouse of Alexandria) caused deep admiration in antiquity and, with it, deserved to pass on to history with the denomination of “Wonders of the World.”

The similarities are evident. In the first place, due to the motive for their construction, which in both cases was the commemoration of the victory over an invading army. Furthermore, due to the emplacement of each statue on an island situated at the entrance to a harbor. Lastly, because in both cases we are dealing with statues of colossal dimensions constructed of bronze plates, accessible from inside.

It must be mentioned that both structures present the particularity that in contrast to what takes place with most other works of antiquity, the name of its creators is known. Nevertheless, the parallelisms between the Tower of Hercules and the Lighthouse of Alexandria cannot be reduced to mere structural aspects, since the influence of the Egyptian monument over the Corunese lighthouse will also be transferred to a symbolic level with the transmission of some legendary elements.

In addition, although in different ways, these two monuments bear a close relationship with the ideal of liberty and, furthermore, with the Independence of the United States