Salina salt pens to be rebuilt into museum of salt

But the structures will be rebuilt in a similar style and using similar materials to house a museum on salt production.

Prior to their descheduling, the wooden sheds enjoyed the highest level of protection which excluded their demolition.

MEPA is currently assessing an application by the Ministry for Rural Affairs and Resources to upgrade the Salina area and to restore the salt plans, to reintroduce the production of salt for educational rather than commercial purposes.

But according to a MEPA spokesperson, the whole project depended on the use of the sheds. “Due to the bad state of preservation of the materials owing to the harsh saline environment and decades of lack of maintenance, the sheds are in such a dilapidated state that they are not restorable or salvageable.”

The Superintendence of Cultural Heritage was also consulted by MEPA and agreed to the proposal in view that the proposals are “replicating the original volume and external appearance” of the original structures.

The Salini were granted on temporary emphyteusis to Fenech’s Silka Ltd. for 35 years in 1987. The land was leased on condition that the site is maintained in good condition. But a series of storms made this an unsustainable condition for Fenech, seeing his investment undone in subsequent storms. 

The Resources Ministry has already addressed this issue by investing €250,000 to restore the flow of water in the water canal known as sokkors, and to strengthen a 90-metre wall which had been damaged in storms.

The restoration of the salt pans will form the third part of an extensive project which has so far centred on the afforestation of the Salina Park, with 11,000 trees having been planted over a 45,000 sq metre site.

The second phase is the restoration of Kennedy Grove and the JFK Memorial, the children’s play area and the marshland between Kennedy Grove and the salt pans. An application for a grant of €700,000 under the EU’s Life programme has been submitted for the restoration of the marshland.

The old pans will be cleaned and restored so that they can resume production and become an attraction, as is the case in Trapani and Guerande in the French region of Bretagne This €10m project will include the rehabilitation of the old wooden huts, with one of them being converted into a visitors’ centre.