The Salt-pans

Oriented natural reserve between Trapani and Paceco. It's an environmental unicum of great landscape , cultural, anthropological and economical importance. In the shallow and warm waters you can easily find many aquatic birds (wild ducks, herons) and in Spring a flowering of tipycal brackish essences spread all over. Tipycal places where one should go and take pictures are: the wind-mills , five of which have been recently restaured, the heaps of salt covered by terracotta tiles, the traditional hydraulic engeneering works and the Salt museum in Nubia.

The salt pans have an unknown foundation but were already attested during the Norman Age ".... right in front of the city entrance there is a salt pan...." (Ibn Gubair) while they were made larger and bigger during the Spanish "Aragonesi" in the XIV century.
The salt pans were probably introduced in Trapani by the Phoenicians.

During the Roman age they weren't exploited so much, as it can be easily understood reading Plinio il Vecchio's writings, the unique Latin author to mention them. The Arab geographer Edrisi speaks about a salt pan at the Trapani entrance whose salt was enough for all the city and it was even exported to Palermo.

Under the Swabian Reign ,the salt pans became a Crown's monopoly and because of this fact, the salt price became six times higher than in the past. Under the Spanish "Aragonese" domination Trapani received many privileges, also because of the salt trade great development, that made its harbour one of the most important in the island. During this period some new salt pans were created: the Curia Salt-pan in 1349, the Saint Teodoro one in 1451, the Morana one in 1488 and the Reda one in 1490 with a "bivarium piscium".

Joining the Spanish reign, Sicily, so far royal residence, was administered by a viceroy and its trade felt the effect of the new political situation.

The salt trade improved when the Venezia citizens lost the Cyprus island with its salt pans and chose to supply themselves from Trapani in1572. Trasselli says that in 1588 16 salt pans were working, producing 5600 salt "salme". In Trapani in 1624 there was a plague coming from Tunisian sailors: so that the harbour was closed and nobody could enter or go out from the city; this provoked a big economic damage as the salt, produced from 1625 to 1630, was not sold.

Besides, in 1630, the Spanish imposed a new duty on salt, to afford their military expenses.This fact, plus the high price of the salt, made the Trapani salt not very requested in the market.

In 1655, the "Regia Corte", which owned some of the salt pans, ordered that the ships loaded its salt first, to be exported. The other owners addressed to the Real Patrimonio Court, but the situation got worse until the "Sabauda" domination.

During this last one, the salt trade didin't improve, but the expenses were reduced.
Under the Austrian domination, the salt exportation had some ups and down. From 1730 on, some new salt-pans were created (Galia, S; Francesco and Ronciglio) and a period of big exportation started.

In 1818, 25 salt-pans were working, thanks to the introduction of the new ones. During that year the Reign of Naples decided to make the Trapani salt-pans a state's monopoly. This decision together with the expropriation, took the Trapani citizens by surprise; they sent a petition to the king, but it was not probably taken into consideration, even if later there will be no new about the expropriation anymore.

After the unification of the Reign of italy, there were 20 salt-pans in the Trapani and Paceco territory and 11 in the Marsala one; totally 850 hectares of territory with a production of 110000 tons of which 75000 were exported. The main salt-pans were in the suburbs of Trapani, in Nubia and Salina Grande and near Marsala, in the Stagnone zone. Later, the zones occupied by the Collegio, Modica Garaffo, Milo and Brignanao salt-panes were transformed in building areas; as the city had extended besides the walls, the Cepea marsh had been reclaimed and an ironclad road had been built.

After the first world war the salt trade was in crisis because of the ware vents, but also because of the other countries competition. So, in 1922, the S.I.E.S. an Italian company for salt exportation, was formed and included 41 among the 51 existent salt-pans. They wanted to unify all the salt-pans in a co-operative society and change the installation system.

In 1955, there was the minimum production ever had, only 50000 tons of salt.
The high management costs, due to the carrying, the salaries and a decrease of the exportation provoked the S.I.E.S. desappearing.

In 1956, the 80% of the existent salt-pans were joined by a new company called S.I.E.S.(Industrial company for the salt exportation): there was a change in the installations to reduce the carrying costs, building the very salty basins closer to the harbour. From 1963-64 the company succeeded in having a big production, but in 1965 and in 1968 the floods damaged a lot the salt-pans and the S.I.E.S.

In 1974 a new joint stock company was formed, "Le Saline di Trapani s. p. a." that managed the salt-pans until 1980. From that period on, the S.I.E.S. company reached the success its economic purposes even in the European markets.

SALT-PANS SCTRUCTURE

The salt-panes extend trough the Trapani-Marsala coast for about 30 km Here the high salt-concentration of the Mediterranean water (3,5-4,5 Baumé) and the climate were favourable for the salt-pan creation. As a matter of fact the scarce precipitations , the high temperatures for months and the winds help the evaporation for six months each year.
The salt-pane is divided from the sea by a tufa dyke made up of dry tufa bricks from Favignana,(cantuna) called "traversa".

The basins are rectangular and their sides can measure between 30 and 50 metres each.
The salt-pan is made up of four kinds of basins : the first ones are deeper (about 1,20 metres), while the very salty basins are about 30 centimetres deep.
To the first kind of basins belongs the friddaEM>putteddra; . This water has the same salt degree and temperature of the sea water. To the second kind of basins belongs the vasu cultivu that is linked to the previous basins by some channels and whose salt degree is 12° Baumé, as after the evaporation, the water has a higher salt. degree.

To the third kind of basins belong the intermediate, ruffiana and ruffianeddra, basins, which are more little than the previous ones and where the salt degree reaches 16-18° Baumé. These basins are linked to the vasu cultivu through a channel called ofacqua crura, with a low salt concentration and that is used to decrease the salt degree of the other basins, in the case the salt goes too early to the very saty basins. To the last kind of basins belong the cauri and the sintine where the water has a very high salt degree (24-26° Baumé) and is called acqua fatta.
The following evaporation of the water and the crystalization of salt happen in the vasche salanti, called caseddri.