A YEAR IN THE SALTERNS

In 1931, the engineer Luigi Conti Vecchi used this 2,700 hectares area to create an entepreneurial project using the modern ideas of economics and evironmental sustainability. The project encompased restoring the pond of Santa Gilla, naturally marshy, by creating a saltern, making a depressed natural area productive. Today, the salterns are still productive, both for industrial salt and for high value table salt, and have become part of a larger industrial parcel owned by Syndial, an ENI subsidiary which specializes in environmental remediation.

The FAI project for the salterns will bring to life a long, captivating story, using innovative multimedia technologies. Different approaches will be used to present the many valuable and interesting aspects of the site: from the industrial history to the distribution of the factories; from the architecture to the recreation of the life in the factories; from the value of the salt as a raw material to the techniques used to produce it; from the habitat of the Santa Gila pond to its transformation into an eco-sustainable production site, capable of improving the natural cycles and processes for the well being and growth of man and the environment.

photo by Omar Crippa