Saltworks

Where sea shoals meet the sun, in the bays with natural broad shallow shelves, saltworks emerge. They are the mines of the treasure collected under the blazing sun, and it is only through hard work that this treasure becomes available and harvestable at one time during the year, making it even more valuable and even more appreciated. Salt. White gold! 

In the Middle Ages it was not only a coveted means of payment, but also a cause for wars and for establishing important trade routes. Salt. The food indispensable for humans and animals to live. The produce without which the history of human aspiration to beauty and better looks is unthinkable. Salt. Gold from the sea. 
The lands to which nature bestowed position by the sea were also bestowed a fortune at the reach of the hand. This, in the economic life of the Ragusan Republic, too, the production, transport and trade in salt occupied an extremely important position. The Republic owed a fair share of its prosperity to the production of and trade in this important foodstuff.
The saltworks of Ston were a permanent concern of the Republic and its authorities until the dismantling of the Republic in 1808. Such saltworks are, generally, valuable monuments of the economic activity of the people in the past, and being exploited still, they witness the superb continuity of human work under the best of environmental conditions. 
Time that in eternity outlives anything material has with its inescapable teeth dented these worthy monuments of man’s painful yet precious labour. If we add earthquakes and war destruction to the inevitable effects of the passage of time, we are left with the result yearning for reconstruction and general improvement. The project for the reconstruction of the saltworks of Ston is as big and demanding as any project with which humans dare challenge the passage of time and the magnificent force of nature. However, if we give each other a hand and put our heads together, any goal is achievable and any project is realisable.