The Salinas de la Concepción sit on Fornells Bay, Menorca. They are the only active salt pans on the island.
The Salort d’Alaior family, owners of the estate since 1614, began making salt in 1853. The first harvest was in the summer of 1854. The name, La Concepción, comes from that same year: on 8 December 1854 Pope Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.
Archduke Ludwig Salvator mentions them in Die Balearen, in 1890–91.
Production went on until 1984. One hundred and thirty years. In 2018 the harvest began again, as artisan work.
The place is part of the Biosphere Reserve. It is a Site of Community Importance, a Special Protection Area for birds and a Natural Area of Special Interest. Care for the place and its biodiversity is the same craft as the salt.
Sea, sun and wind form the crystal. The salt workers harvest. How it is obtained is told in the stages of production and in why unrefined salt matters.
