The lighthouse is built with iron tubing and lead gaskets. It has a one-million watt signal light which has a Morse code call signal of three dashes the first letter is "O" which stands for Odessa.

When there is fog or a severe storm, the lighthouse also sounds a foghorn.

The Vorontsov Lighthouse is connected with the port's shoreline by a long stone causeway , called the Quarantine (Karantinny) and Road (Reidovy) jetty. Both jetties protect the port from the high seas coming from the South.

The port is protected on the east by breakwaters, huge concrete ramparts, built on rocks, rising above the water.

The first lighthouse at Big fountain cape was built in 1827. There is a story that the building was initiated because of a tragedy. A landowner made a bonfire on the seacoast. The skipper of a passing trade ship mistook the fire for a lighthouse and directed his boat to the coast. The boat ran aground and one of the sailors was killed. The landowner felt incredibly guilty about the tragedy and gave his land to a monastery, on the one condition that a lighthouse would be built there.
--adapted from Odessa, the Almanac

Initially the port lighthouse was situated at the Karantinny pier. This stone tower was destroyed after the Reidovy pier and Vorontsov Lighthouse was built in 1888.

The lighthouse was blown up during the Nazi invasion, it was rebuilt after the war.