Margarita Orfila, president of the Ateneu de Maó, shares her impressions today after visiting the Salinas de la Concepción and reveals to us the importance of the careful restoration that has been carried out, as well as the significance for her of being able to season food with Sal de Menorca.

Possibly it evokes my first memory of having been a student very close to here in the paleochristian basilica next door. And on some occasions we went to see these Salinas de la Concepción.

It evokes to me how it has been possible to recover something that was being degraded. To see it as it is now and see it so natural, and see the architectural work that has been done, in this place, where the recovery is not only about recovering spaces, and recovering a way of doing, a way of working. It seems wonderful to me, spectacular and to recover an activity that has always been associated with humans.

As long as there have been no refrigerators, salt has been the basis of life. It has been the basis of preservation and it was done just as it is now here. I worked on it when I was young in my doctoral thesis, which there happened to be some Salinas in Mallorca, and that way of how salt was obtained, the explanation Guillermo has given us today, and see that nothing has changed, because there is no need to change anything, because the base is already there.

It seems splendid to me, very nice and congratulations, especially, to the promoters who have done it, and how nice it will be, in the future, to be able to salt our food with the salt from here, Sal de Menorca, with that marvelous Flor de Sal. These collections daily when the inclement weather allows it. Which in Menorca because of the sun and the wind are quite a few days.

Very nice, and overall, to congratulate for this recovery.

Margarita Orfila
President of the Ateneu de Maó