The White Gold of Cervia

The salt pans in the area of Cervia are said to have been formed as early as the Etruscan period, and were especially important in the Roman period. Later, however, they were part of the Papal State
The exhibition describes Cervia as a salt production town that is still proudly showing today - as a resort appreciated ond coveted by visitors from all Europe - its origin as a salt production centre.

Actually, the landscape reveals tangible evidence of its past history focused on the production and trade of salt, especially in the oldest area out of the old city walls, showing its salt-based commercial and economic centre.

Here, two majestic storehouses face each other from the two opposite port canal banks while a tower - built in defence of the town and its valuable "white gold" and dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel - still watches over the town. The canal widens near the salt storehouses formimg a dock where the burchiella (flat-bottomed boats), loaded with the salt of the yearly production, would moor.

The historical inner city, also called the New City - as Cervia used to be out in the middle of the saltpan befere 1698 - was surrounded by defensive walls where the houses of the saltpan workers were built-in, so that the fortified town was also functional to salt production thanks to its inner courts and spaces where working tools and equipement could be kept.