The purity of the salt crystals obtained in the Añana Salt Valley is due both to its artisanal production process and to the origin of the raw material. The brine that flows from the springs is created naturally when fresh water flows through the seams of solid salt deposited in this place more than 200 million years ago.
The salt crystals are produced in a traditional way on the threshing floors. The sun and the wind cause the salt flowers to gradually increase in size and join together. As soon as their weight increases, they fall to the bottom and are collected manually by the salt makers.
The benefits of Añana salt crystals have been internationally recognised since 1851. In that year, the salt makers presented this product at the Universal Exhibition in London, where they were awarded an honourable mention and a bronze medal. This type of salt, in addition to being produced in a cultural landscape with more than 1200 years of documented history, is good for our health, as it has a natural balance of minerals and is rich in trace elements. In addition, its high capacity to enhance the flavour of food means that we have to use less to obtain the desired touch.
Andana Salt Valley Foundation
In 1960 there were 5,648 salt-making mills operating in the salt valley, in 1984 their number had been reduced to 2,338 and in the year 2000 there were barely 2,338.This dizzying rate of degradation, in which 93.3% of the platforms practically disappeared in just 40 years, led the Provincial Council of Alava to promote the recovery of the whole. To this end, a Master Plan was launched, the main objective of which was to diagnose the problems that caused the ruin of the valley and to indicate the most appropriate way and means to rescue them from the oblivion to which they had been subjected over the last forty years, preserve them, maintain them, look after them, use them, teach them and, through their use, guarantee their survival for future generations.
The phrase that best reflects the philosophy of the work carried out for the Master Plan is: "Know to restore, restore to survive". It should be borne in mind that the image offered by the Salt Valley today is the result of a complex evolutionary process, both from a political, economic and social point of view, which began when the first man took advantage of the brine from its springs in prehistoric times to make salt and ended when it ceased to be produced and the salt mines were abandoned. In order to recover Añana it is necessary to understand this process, as in this way we will recover from oblivion the empirical knowledge developed over millennia by the salt makers and we will avoid making mistakes during future works. Consequently, the methodological procedure of the Master Plan has been based on three interrelated basic pillars. The first is "documenting", the second "analysing" and the third "proposing"
