In September, Mallorca’s sea salt is ready to be harvested. When the sun shines on the fields, the crystals sparkle like snow, creating a charming winter landscape from a distance. It would almost be a shame to harvest it. A consolation: the extracted salt is piled into impressive mountainous formations before being processed. The island’s last saltworks, located between Campos and Colònia de Sant Jordi, produces around 10,000 tons of white gold each year.
Map and Location
The Salines de Llevant, also known as Ses Salines d’Es Trenc, are located in the southeast of the island of Mallorca, near the famous Es Trenc beach.
Salines de Llevant: Traditional Salt Extraction in Mallorca
The method of salt extraction is both simple and ingenious: in April, seawater is pumped through a two-kilometer channel into the artificial salt fields (cuarteradas). The cuarteradas are interconnected and cover an area of approximately 160,000 square meters.
Each individual field measures 7,100 square meters. During the summer, the water evaporates due to the heat and wind, leaving behind almost pure sea salt. By September, the crust in the salt fields is 12 to 14 centimeters thick. Approximately one ton of salt can be collected per square meter using a salt rake. This process is 2,000 years old, but industrial salt extraction in Mallorca began in 1850, when the company “Salines de Llevant” was founded.
By car, you can comfortably travel along a small path through this private 130-hectare property with its salt lakes and bright white mountains. Bird enthusiasts should explore the area with binoculars, as many rare species gather here to hunt salt shrimp, including the Kentish plover, Audouin’s gull, the Balearic shearwater, and the common redshank.
At the salt shop, you can buy Mallorca’s “white gold” in one-kilogram bags for just a few cents:
(Ctra. Campos-Colònia de Sant Jordi, km 10, Camino Playa d’Es Trenc, Monday to Friday from 7 AM to 3 PM).
A must-try: the gourmet salt “Flor de Sal” in different flavors (available in gourmet stores across Mallorca or at the weekly markets in Andratx and Santanyí). Since 2003, the entrepreneurs behind “Flor de Sal,” Katja Wöhr and Sabine Kersten, have been harvesting the valuable top layer of the saltwater ponds, which has a sweet flavor and contains sixteen times more magnesium and twice the calcium.
Interesting sights near the Salines de Llevant
3,6 km
4,8 km
