The Museum of Salt-Making

The museum is located at the formerly used Secovlje salt-pans to the right of the Giassi channel. It is comprised of a salt-maker's dwelling with a collection of artefacts, and salt-pans near the Giassi channel, supplying fresh sea water. The salt-maker's dwelling is comprised of three buildings: a two-storied house, where the family lived on the 1st floor and stored the salt on the ground-floor, and a reconstructed bakery, the curiosity of the Secovlje salt-works. The Museum's salt-pans with the house in the background. (JPG format, 73 Kb)
The buildings and the salt-pans were restored by the Inter-Communal Office for the Preservation of Natural and Cultural Heritage, which has its seat in Piran.

The collection exhibited in the Museum of Salt-Making was created by the Sergej Masera Maritime Museum of Piran. The museum works were finished in the spring of 1991.

The artefacts, pictures and texts, which form the collection, show the working and living environment of the salt-makers. The collection emphasises the elements that characterised the summer period, when the salt-makers moved into their houses among the salt-pans.

On the ground floor one can learn about the development of salt-making in the north-east Adriatic. The salt works of Piran were very important to the social, economic and cultural life on the coast. Certainly, the most valuable salt-pans were the ones of Se~ovlje, where their extraordinary natural and cultural heritage can still be witnessed.

Part of the ground floor shows what a salt store looked like. The salt is harvested in the salt-pans belonging to the museum. Tools used for work in the salt-pans and in store-houses are also exposed here.

Salt store in the house. (JPG format, 61 Kb)
A wooden staircase leads to the first floor. A kitchen and a room show a typical dwelling of a salt-maker's family. The furniture and equipment are objects made of wood, clay and cloth. Some pieces of furniture are copies.
A fireplace. (JPG format, 61 Kb)
The other room shows pictures of daily life in the salt-works. Objects connected to food and fresh drinking water supply, bread baking, typical dishes, etc., are displayed here.

In the restored salt-pans a group of salt-workers use traditional methods and tools. A systematic scheme of how salt-pans function can be seen on the ground floor of the Museum. Any of the salt-workers in the salt-pans of the museum will gladly explain the traditional method of work.

Salt-making in the salt-pans of the Museum. Photo Hjalmar Dahm. (JPG format, 60 Kb)

The visitors are requested not to walk in the salt-pans or lift the shutters in the water channels.

January 2000