From the Great Saltworks of Salins-les-Bains to the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans, the Production of Open-pan Salt
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How it came to be
At Salins-les-Bains in eastern France, brine was drawn from underground and boiled over wood fires from the Middle Ages at the latest. By 1115 there were already two saltworks at wells around the town, and salt made Salins the largest town in medieval Franche-Comté after Besançon.
Over time the nearby forests were cut down, and hauling wood from farther away grew costly. The architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, inspector of the saltworks from 1771, designed a Royal Saltworks at Arc-et-Senans near the forest of Chaux. Completed in 1779, its semicircle of buildings received brine from Salins through a double wooden pipeline 21 km long. Ledoux planned an ideal city around the works, but only the saltworks was built.
The Royal Saltworks operated until 1895 and was inscribed in 1982. The Great Saltworks of Salins ceased production in 1962 and was added to the property in 2009.
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