From our current perspective, it is almost impossible to understand how salt, such an abundant and low-cost product, could be so important historically. We must bear in mind that salt was and is essential in many industrial processes as well as in human food and animal feed; more so when industrial cooling systems had not been developed, as it was one of the most effective methods of preserving food.

Salt has been the cause of many wars and enforced peace processes, of death and success, of wealth and poverty, of the creation and destruction of towns and cities and, of course, of greed but also a cause for joy among human beings.

Valle Salado is one of the best examples worldwide of the history of salt, known since antiquity as "white gold". The natural emergence of the salt springs caused the establishment of a settlement in the surrounding area that has developed uninterruptedly for thousands of years and that, based on the production of salt, has learned to adapt to the conditions and specificities of each historical period.

Click on each of the boxes on the right and visit the various historical periods of the Añana salt works.