Traditional salt production

The cultural heritage of the Piran Salt Pans reflects the centuries-old life and work of the salt workers of the Northeastern shores of the Adriatic Sea. Of the once numerous salt pans in the Gulf of Trieste, only those in Sečovlje and Strunjan have survived, making their testimony even more precious. It places them at the level of ethnological, technical, historical, built and landscape heritage of exceptional importance.

The immovable cultural heritage of the salt pans includes the salt fields, the canals and banks with stone walls, steps and sluices, the salt houses and their surroundings, the paths, bridges, pumps, etc.

The Strunjan and Sečovlje salt pans are among the only salt pans on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea where salt is produced using traditional methods throughout the process, with daily harvesting in brine on a bio-sediment - the petola.

For centuries, the salt pans of the northern Adriatic have had a major impact on the economies of the countries and city states of the area. They have been the subject of political disputes and wars because their usefulness made salt a valuable raw material and a strategic trade commodity, important for preserving food and for the production of gunpowder.

At one time, in addition to the old salt pans of Piran in Sečovlje, Lucija and Strunjan, there were many smaller and larger salt pans in the Gulf of Trieste and Istria (e.g. in Milje, Koper, Izola, Lucija). They were shaped not only by political and economic interests, but also by the capriciousness of nature, which at times prevented salt production for long periods, at others gave it an abundance.

The Sečovlje and Strunjan salt pans are the only salt pans in this part of the Adriatic that still produce salt, preserving the traditional production process of daily salt harvesting.