Añana´s Salt Valley

// AÑANA’S SALT VALLEY

Deiby Betancur Grisales

38 HISTORY Valle Salado is one of the oldest industries in the world. We must have in mind that salt was and is indispensable in a multitude of industrial processes and in human and animal food. Especially when the industrial cold had not developed yet, since it was one of the most effective methods for conserving the food. Salt has been the cause of numerous wars and forced peace, deaths and encumbrances, wealth and poverty, the creation and destruction of towns and cities. The Salt Valley is one of the most representative examples worldwide of the history of salt, known as “white gold”. The natural development of springs of brine has caused that in its immediate environment uninterrupted development for thousands of years an important settlement

SALT ARCHITECTURE The unusual salt architecture that has been generated in Añana is the result of the exchange of cultural and human values that have developed throughout its history. This popular architecture does not show the rigid architectural styles of scholarly knowledge, but, due to its utilitarian character, in the valley have harmoniously coexisted technological innovations with the material testimonies of the different eras. Following the patterns marked by experience and tradition, the salineros have created an unusual, anonymous, popular and traditional architecture. With few exceptions, the salt architecture of Valle Salado has not used specialized labor, but the salineros themselves have been in charge of the constructions, using the materials that the nature of the environment provides them with:

Past times

stone, wood and clay. In the process, the minimum resources have been used with maximum efficiency in an absolutely sustainable and ecological way, applying an ingenious technology. The result is a humanized landscape formed by more than four kilometers of wooden channels that lead the salt water from the springs to the wells and stepped terraces, built with stone, wood and clay, which support the eras where the salt is collected. This has meant a high fragility of the structures, in need of continuous care and maintenance. The salineros have taken advantage of the stone walls as a base for the wooden structures on which to build high-rise terraces that, in some cases, can exceed eight meters.

ELEMENTS Springs: the springs are surges that supply the brine at the surface level in a natural and continuous manner, which allows its use without the need for drilling or pumping. There is a large number in Valle Salado and its surroundings.

Brine driving: the salt water transport is carried

Architecture

Brine driving

Springs out continuously and by gravity through a network of channels called royos. Although in origin most of them were simple ditches excavated in the land, they were replaced by wooden trunks over time.

Brine wells: the deposits are the heart of the salting farms and their filling is the cause of most of the discussions among the salt workers. Evaporation platforms: the obtaining of the salt in Añana is based on the evaporation of the water contained in the brine by natural means. To do this, salt water is poured into horizontal platforms called eras. The groups of eras are called farms. These farms are adapted to the complex orography of the landscape, both in form and in height.

Warehouses: the spaces that are created under the eras are used by the salineros as salt stores. In these particular warehouses the salineros deposit the salt produced from May to September.

WATER SYSTEM The salineros of Añana devised a distribution system for channels built with hollowed wooden trunks. This network of channels has more than 4 kilometers in total length. By means of several support systems, it is possible to maintain the necessary slope so that the brine flows by gravity to almost all the saline points. In this way, a unique and impressive landscape is created, where you can see channels resting on the ground or supported by wooden pillars that reach up to ten meters in height in order to bridge the gap between two hillsides. RESEARCH | REFERENCES

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40 SUSTAINABILITY Thanks to the wisdom and techniques developed by the salineros, taking advantage of the natural elements, sustainable industrial exploitation has been achieved. All the materials used are natural, except at some time of instability in which the fundamental principles that govern the life of the valley were relegated, putting only economic criteria before them. Both the production of salt and the construction of its structures are perfectly sustainable, achieving an optimum environmental and ecological balance.

The institutions have been involved in the project through the Valle Salado de Añana Foundation; the commercialization and sale of salt has focused on quality and not quantity; the techniques and the millennial know-how of the salineros have been recovered, both in the maintenance and repair of the platforms and in the production of salt; and the salt activity is being complemented with other tourism, cultural and health services open to all citizens.

All this is contributing to the Salado Valley of Añana has regained its sustainability and is already ensuring the social and economic future of a unique cultural landscape in the world. They are also respecting their heritage and environmental values.

Warehouses

Water system

Añana‘s salt valley