It is said that the engineer Luigi Conti Vecchi asked if Sardinia was touched by the mistral. A curious doubt to be thought in front of the large square that leads to his salt pans, where the north-west wind upsets the tufts of palm trees, sending a rustling sound through the air, and from the bottom it smoothly snatch away scent of rosemary. Clouds broken into flocks run through the blue.
Of Sardinia the engineer had known only the men, the small emaciated “devils” who, dashing in assaults from the First World War trenches, showed the pride of the ancient agricultural and pastoral world. "Too big to be conquered, too small to be independent" commented many years later the Tuscan general who before the war had built bridges and aqueducts around Italy, and who, after the war’s massacre, wanted Sardinia as the theater of his demiurgic work made of sea, earth, men and salt.
In 1919 his project responded to the state ban, and won it. Thus began the huge transformation which would have thrusted the sea where the fresh water infested with malaria was. On the banks of the Santa Gilla pond, evaporating basins and salt boxes, offices, workshop, chemical laboratory, workers and managers houses, school and church appeared in a few years. An English garden city, an Olivetti factory ante litteram, a colonial microcosm of organization, an intertwining of work and nature.
Conti Vecchi died in 1927, year of the first harvest. His mission passed to his son Guido, and so the profits of what would quickly become the third salt pan in Europe, the second in Italy after that of Margherita di Savoia in Puglia. 2700 hectares capable of delivering up to 300,000 tons of white gold and magnesium, plaster, potassium and the gillite, an insulation material kneaded here for the first time that ended up in the theaters and cinemas of Cagliari, which in those year was opening itself up to modernity.
The families of five hundred workers lived in the village, whose fragile construction material did not resist to the passing of time. For each house a kitchen with fireplace, a room, a bathroom and courtyard. A humble luxury for those times. But from September to November, and sometimes until Christmas, for the harvest, the salt pan was filled with seasonal workers, up to 1500 men burned and blinded by the sun, armed with a pickaxe to detach the precipitated salt from the bottom of the vast salt boxes. “In Assemini, those who are eighty at least once in their life have been seasonal salineers. Over the decades the town has established a visceral relationship with the saltworks", explain Giulia Deangelis and Emanuele Masillo, the FAI (Italian Environment Fund) who manage the reception, guide visitors, keep the administration in order, protect nature and memory of this vast, open-air monument.
Over the decades, the salt pan passed from Conti Vecchi's grandchildren to Rovelli’s IMI, and in 1984 to the Italian state, which later entrusted it to ENI. It is the first time that FAI manages an asset in collaboration with a production business. Offices and work environments, arranged around the internal square, have been restored to their authentic condition. In the director’s office a display case preserves a large crystal of salt from the first harvest, the catafalques of typewriters and tape recorders, the register of operations written in sinuous ink: "50 kg of magnesium sulphate, paid". Outside the window an offcut of the lagoon, and in the distance Cagliari, its row of pastels descending to the sea. In the adjacent room there is the large historical archive (object of a reorganization plan by the FAI) and an ancient drafting machine, the wooden matrices of the fundamental mechanical elements, which reproduced here guaranteed autonomy and efficiency to the salt works. And also the "costs and accounting" office, the chemical laboratory full of stills and the old carpentry where a video projected on the walls describes the entire production process, the large mechanical workshop and the splendid
documentary on the history of the salt pan, a vision of the engineer Conti Vecchi embedded in the history of Cagliari and Sardinia.
An industrial and agricultural archeology complex if, as Carlo explains while driving the rubberized train that leads visitors to the natural heart of the salt pan, "the sun and wind affect the harvest, the mountain of salt is a barnyard, the salt worker is a farmer of the sea". The mighty lump of collected salt imposes itself on the eyes, immaculate against the sky like a heavy cloud. A path dug on the side of the strip up to the top, for over time the ridge becomes so hard that it must be shaken with picks. Then the salt boxes parade, the magnesium foam gathered on the banks by the mistral, the pink color of the salinity that will become red like blood when the harvest comes, in November.
Beyond the evaporating basins nature begins to live again. The pond framed by low earthen ballasts, rushes and willows, the reeds that breathe in the low salinity water, the colonies of the flamingos, motionless or oriented towards the southeast, in favor of the wind. The gulls, the shelducks, the marsh harrier, the mallard and even a pelican met a few days ago, during one of the excursions. Santa Gilla is one of the most important wetlands in the Mediterranean basin, a Special Protection Area (SPA) and a site protected by the Ramsar convention since 1977. There are about 50 bird species that inhabit this corner of the pond. They rise in flight, pronounce themselves in a verse, settle down again. Everything else suddenly becomes remote.
The MedArtSal project is funded by the European ENI CBC MED 2014-2020 Project, with a total budget of 3.2 million euros and a contribution from the European Union of 2.9 million. It will last for 36 months. The Saline Conti Vecchi will be part of the benchmarking activity provided by MedArtSal for the gathering of the data, and they might benefit from the results achieved by the project.
Latest news
TransformAr Open Day in Marceddì: Marshes and Lagoons to Reimagine the Future
Natural Solutions to Adapt to Climate Change: Lagoons and Marshes. This topic was discussed during an immersive walk between the Marceddì Lagoon and the San Giovanni Marsh on Friday, July…
MEDSEA joined the Natural Heritage Interreg Euro-MED Mission in Rovinj for aligning in projects' Communication
MEDSEA stopped in Rovinj, Croatia, from June 26th to 27th, 2024, to participate in the Communication, Amplification and Policy activities of the Interreg Euro-MED Natural Heritage mission, which brings together the thematic projects…
DesirMED: Nature-Based Solutions for Climate Adaptation, Regional Comparison at the Mid-Year Assembl
The DesirMED project recently held its General Assembly online on June 19 and 20 to review the progress of activities in the first semester. This meeting saw the participation of all scientific partners and…
Waste Hunt at Sella del Diavolo to Protect our Cetaceans Friends
Last Saturday on June 15th, nearly a ton of waste was recovered both on land and at sea during the "Puliamo la Sella!" event in Cagliari. The collected items included…
Active Restoration of Posidonia oceanica: MEDSEA at the 2024 World Seagrass Conference in Naples
MEDSEA continues to lead in the active restoration of Posidonia oceanica, a crucial topic for the conservation of Mediterranean marine ecosystems. Recently, the guide "Guidelines for the Active Restoration of Posidonia oceanica"
TransformAr Open Day on July 5th 2024: Discovering Transformative Solutions for Climate Change at the Marceddì Lagoon
On July 5th, TransformAr presents itself to the public with a special Open Day. The European Horizon 2020 project, aimed at developing transformative solutions for climate change adaptation, invites curious minds and citizens…
Puliamo la Sella! 2024 dedicated to our cetacean friends, with WWF, returns to Cagliari on June 15, 2024
The coastal cleanup organized by the MEDSEA Foundation, Puliamo la Sella!, returns to Cagliari on June 15th 2024. This year's event, now in its sixth edition, will be a special…
Deep Dive: The Talk for World Oceans Day
World Oceans Day provided an opportunity to reaffirm the importance of acting now to protect one of our most precious assets: the marine and coastal ecosystem. The Coalitions of the…
First SEG Meeting of the BLUE4ALL Project: A Focus on Surveillance and Biodiversity Protection
On May 23, 2024, the inaugural SEG (Stakeholder Engagement Group) meeting for the BLUE4ALL Project was held at Casa Todde in Villasimius, with options for remote participation.
RICREA introduces itself in Lucca, working on updating the Contracts, and will also focus on the Blue Crab
River, lagoon, and water body contracts in general are an exceptional tool for sustainable and participative environmental management, essential for the protection of water resources and local biodiversity. However, there…
TransformAr: Climate Adaptation Pathways Finalized for the Fisheries and Agriculture Sector in Terralba
This week, a participatory workshop was held in Terralba as part of the TransformAr project to finalise the adaptation pathways developed with local operators, particularly in the fisheries, agriculture, and biodiversity sectors.
ARTEMIS, Partner Meeting in Marseille to Kick Off Activities
On May 15th and 16th, at the Plan Bleu headquarters in Marseille, the first in-person meeting of the ARTEMIS project was held since the kickoff in March. ARTEMIS is a project within the…
DEEP DIVE: The Alarming State of the Ocean – Inspiring Action and Searching for Solutions (Webinar)
In celebration of World Ocean Day, MEDSEA invites you to the online event "Deep Dive: The Alarming State of the Ocean", a detailed analysis of the challenges that oceans are…
Fire Monitoring Test successfully conducted in Santu Lussurgiu thanks to IoT Technologies
At the end of April, a major breakthrough in fire prevention technology was achieved in the forests of San Leonardo. Thanks to pre-fire detection sensors, an IoT (Internet of Things) technology developed and…
REST COAST, at the annual meeting in Groningen, demonstrates the effectiveness of natural restoration of aquatic systems
The standstill of the Nature Restoration Law, the European law on nature restoration, stalled in its final approval phase in the Council due to the hesitations of some Member States, has…
TransformAr makes a stop in Finland for the sixth Consortium Meeting
In mid-April, the sixth Consortium meeting of the H2020 TransformAr Project was held in Lappeenranta, recognized as the Climate Capital of Finland. This city truly exemplifies sustainability, with 100% of waste recycled and all…
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4