Fun workshop at the Museum of Salt-making!

The Maritime Museum "Sergej Mašera" Piran, the Italian Community "Giuseppe Tartini" Piran, the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia, the Piran Self-Government Community, the Sečovlje Salina Landscape Park and the Sečovlje Parish are implementing the project The Salt Pans Cuisine for the third year in a row. This year we enlarged the project and presented it to the pupils of local primary schools. On 7th June 2022 a group from the Centre for Communication, Hearing and Speech, Portorož visited the Museum of Salt-making.

They learned about the past, work and life in the salt pans. In the first workshop, they learned some interesting things about wild plants and herbs that are used in cooking, and made their own mixture of herb salt. In the second workshop they baked bread. Firstly, they prepared leavened dough and then marked it with bread seals, as it was used by salt workers in the past. As bread was backed by a number of families in the same oven at the same time, their loaves were marked with their family seals. At the end the pupils baked their own bread in the oven of the museum saltpans house.

By presenting typical dishes, we want to contribute to the wider knowledge and preservation of the increasingly endangered salt-making heritage. This year the European Heritage Days are dedicated to sustainability, so we highlight also those cultural heritage contents that contribute to a better ecological and green future. The centuries-old craft of salt-making certainly represents an interdependent and respectful relationship between man and nature.
The transfer of such knowledge and values to the younger generation is crucial for the development and preservation of heritage.