Protected from excessive urbanization by the Coastal Law, Cap Ferrat is mainly home to the luxurious properties of billionaires from all over the world. A lighthouse erected in 1732 to replace a 16th-century fire tower, destroyed in 1944 and rebuilt by the Ponts et Chaussées in 1951, stands at its southern tip. It has been listed as a Historical Monument since 2012. The peninsula is also dominated by a semaphore built at an altitude of 469 ft (143 m) in 1862 by decision of Emperor Napoleon III. The French Navy uses it to regulate maritime traffic and monitor the outbreaks of fires.