Amos Chapple Visuals

She dances on the grave of an empire.

The Vittoria Light, crowned with a statue of winged victory, was built in the 1920s on top of an abandoned fort of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

After the annexation of Trieste to Italy following World War I, the lighthouse was conceived as a Fascist-style memorial to the sailors killed in that conflict. Its emplacement on top of the fort served as a gloating marker of Austro-Hungarian defeat.

The rooftop figure is over seven meters high and was built with slits cut into her wings to reduce the strain caused by the Bora wind that streaks over the Gulf of Trieste.

The instruction inscribed on the front of the lighthouse has been followed since its electric lamp was first switched on in 1927: “Shine on and remember the fallen of the sea.”

She is Seville’s most famous Christian symbol and stands atop the tower built for a mosque.

In the 8th century Seville and most of the rest of the Iberian peninsula was conquered by Arab armies. A later series of military raids known as the reconquista ended with European Christians recapturing the territory by the late 1400s.

With Seville back in Christian hands the grand mosque of the city was converted into a cathedral and in 1568 this beautiful wind vane, known as Giraldillo, was emplaced atop the modified minaret.

She has twisted with the wind ever since, enduring earthquakes, lightning strikes and more than 450 blistering Andalusian summers.

The palm leaf in her left hand represents the triumph of Christendom over Islam while Giraldillo’s pregnant figure hints at Spain’s bright future under European control.

Inscribed just under the statue is a proverb: “The strongest tower is the name of the Lord.”