There are numerous salt pans throughout the province of Trapani. They consist of large tuff basins where water is collected through a system of locks and channels afterwards the sun does the rest of the work. Once the water evaporates the salt remains in the pans. In the past teams of workers arranged the salt and worked exclusively with manual tools, today this is all done mechanically.
The Windmill
A distinguishing construction of the salt pans of Trapani is the windmill. The movement of the six wooden blades , covered in sail cloth, moved the water into the tanks to begin the process of evaporation. As a result, the salt pans could only function under certain weather conditions: wind was needed to move the mill, the sun was needed to evaporate the water, and low rainfall was necessary for high temperatures and low humidity. Nowadays, only a few salt pans are still operating and manual work has been almost entirely replaced by machines.
Places of interest
The salt pans of Nubia are among the few remaining in activity. You can reach them by car and they can be visited. There is also a salt museum where you can take a small guided tour to learn in detail the techniques of the extraction and operation of the mill as well as all the properties of salt. Towards the end of the summer, you can watch the salt harvest.
PRICE
€ 2,50
LINK
DISTANCE FROM KITE HOSTEL STAGNONE
25 minutes
