Origin and history
Salins-les-Bains salines, located in the Jura department, are among the oldest known, with salt exploitation dating back about 7,000 years. This industrial site, which was in operation until 1962, illustrates the evolution of salt production techniques by evaporation of brine, using salt water sources captured at a depth of 250 metres. The salines were divided into two main groups: the Great Saline (or Great Saunery), owned by the Counts of Burgundy from the thirteenth century, and the Little Saline, owned by religious establishments and lay people. These facilities, supplied by wells such as the Muire well or the upstream well, played a major economic role in the region, employing up to 1,000 workers in the Middle Ages to produce 3,000 tons of salt annually.
Over the centuries, the salines have undergone technical and political changes. In the 12th century Salins exploited three salines, including the Chauderette de Rosières, linked to Cistercian abbeys. The domination of the Habsburgs in the 16th century and the management by rent from 1601 marks a turning point. In the 18th century, the decline in productivity and the need for wood led to the construction of the royal saline of Arc-et-Senans (1775-1779), connected by a 21 km saumoduct. Salins salines, modernized in the 19th century with rectangular stoves and boreholes, closed permanently in 1962, before being bought by the municipality in 1966.
The site, classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2009 in addition to Arc-et-Senans, includes underground galleries, manufacturing workshops, and buildings such as the stove room or salt shop. Today, it houses a salt museum and continues to provide brine for local thermal baths and snow clearing roads. The remains, including the tower of Reculot and the underground wells, testify to its industrial history and its economic importance for Burgundy-Franche-Comté. Conflicts around salt prices, as in 1440, or technical innovations, such as Vincent Bébian's pumps, underline his central role in the region.
The architecture of the saline combines medieval elements (th century vaulted gallery, fortified enclosures) and reconstructions of the 15th or 19th century, after fires (1825, Second World War). The great Saline, bounded by a now disappeared enclosure, included workshops, housing, chapel, and prisons. The little Saline, destroyed in 1853, left room for a thermal establishment. The site, a communal property since 1966, is open to the public and also houses a casino, a tourist office, and green spaces.
Salins-les-Bains salines were organized around two main wells: the well at Muire (small saline) and the wells at Amont and Grès (large saline), connected by an underground gallery. The extraction used norias until the 18th century, replaced by hydraulic pumps. The salt, produced in breads of 2 to 3 pounds, was sold under different names (Rosière salt, Lombard salt). The annuitant lords (abbots, bourgeois) and the Counts of Burgundy shared the profits, while conflicts broke out around prices, as in 1440, when the great saline lost 6,000 loads of salt due to unfair competition.
After the Revolution, the salines became national property in 1790 and were privatized in 1843. Despite plans to regroup, which had been refused (1847, 1855), in 1862 they joined the union of Nancy, a cartel of salt producers. Their activity declined in the 20th century, with intermittent production from 1940 to 1962. Listed as a historic monument in 1971 and 2009, saline preserve functional facilities such as evaporation stoves and pumping mechanisms, providing a unique testimony of the traditional salt industry. Their brine, exceptionally concentrated (330 g/l), remains in operation today.
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