The secrets of Cardona’s salt mountain

The Salt Moun­tain is a unique nat­ural phe­nom­e­non on the planet that grows as rain erodes it. Its 120 me­tres in height are just the tip of a huge di­apir (a ge­o­log­i­cal struc­ture con­sist­ing of mo­bile ma­te­r­ial that was forced into more brit­tle sur­round­ing rocks) about two kilo­me­tres deep.

Known as the Nieves mine, for years the site was one of the most im­por­tant potas­sium salt mines in the world. Today, the old min­ing site has been con­verted into the Salt Moun­tain Cul­tural Park, a large cul­tural fa­cil­ity that aims to com­mu­ni­cate the im­por­tance of salt, the ge­o­log­i­cal ex­cep­tion­al­ity of the site, and the use that man has made of this re­source for cen­turies.

The guided tour takes the vis­i­tor in­side the gal­leries of the Salt Moun­tain, which have been open since 1997. The visit re­veals the splen­dour of the dif­fer­ent folds and veins of the site and the di­ver­sity of its min­er­als.

A walk through the old min­ing fa­cil­i­ties be­neath the im­pos­ing head­frame of the old mi­ne­shaft, known as Maria Theresa, brings us to the mu­seum area, an open space that tells the story of the ex­ploita­tion of the salts, ge­ol­ogy, min­er­al­ogy and botany of this area of nat­ural in­ter­est, the Salt Val­ley of Car­dona. A visit to the mi­ne­shaft ma­chine build­ing re­veals a gem of in­dus­trial ar­chae­ol­ogy: the shaft’s ma­chin­ery that was de­signed and built by Al­sthom (now Al­stom) in the 1920s. In the base­ment there is a pho­tog­ra­phy ex­hi­bi­tion.

The old car­pen­try and me­chan­i­cal work­shop today houses the Salt Hand­i­craft Cen­tre and the “Mem­ory of the Women of the Min­ing Colonies” ex­hi­bi­tion. Here there is also a cafe­te­ria and an out­door ter­race, while La Bo­tigueta shop at the re­cep­tion has a wide range of prod­ucts and lit­er­a­ture about Car­dona.

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