Salt has been gathered in Menorca for centuries. In 1303 Dalmau Sagarriga, lieutenant of the Kingdom of Mallorca, declared the collection of salt for one’s own use to be free.
Before the pans, people used the cocós: natural hollows in the coastal rock. The swell filled them. In the dry season the water left and the salt remained.
With the Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, the English set a naval base on the island. Concessions to produce salt followed. All of them on the north coast.
There were four salt pans. La Concepción — once Salines Noves — in Fornells. Tirant Vell, later Ses Salines Velles, also in Fornells. Addaia. Mongofra, at the back of Addaia harbour.
In the twentieth century, salt brought in from elsewhere brought the craft down. Of those four, only one is still at work.
The Salinas de la Concepción. Unrefined salt still forms there.
