Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Musée de la Grande Saline, located in Salins-les-Bains in the Jura, is the heir to a major industrial site dedicated to salt extraction since the eighth century. This "white gold", exploited by natural saltwater sources, shaped the economy and local power for more than 1,200 years. Production stopped in 1962, marked by the evolution of food conservation techniques and competition from industrial cold. The current buildings, built between the 15th and 19th centuries, still contain remarkable technical remains, such as a vaulted 13th-century underground gallery and a 19th-century pump operated by an 18th-century balancer, still in operation.

La Grande Saline became a museum in 1966, under the management of the city of Salins-les-Bains. Her collections, enriched in 2016, combine technical objects related to the manufacture of salt (salt stove, tools) and works of art from the Max Claudet fonds. It brings together paintings, sculptures and earthenware from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, reflecting the local artistic heritage. The site, unique in Europe, offers a route through a 165-metre underground gallery and an evaporative building where the last salt stove in France remains, witness to a thousand-year-old tradition.

Listed among the emblematic monuments of Franche-Comté, the Grande Saline illustrates human ingenuity to exploit an exceptional natural resource. The Dukes and kings who administered the site contributed to its development, making Salins-les-Bains a strategic center for the salt trade. Today, the museum highlights this dual heritage: industrial, with machines still functional, and artistic, through works related to the history of the city. The label Musée de France underlines its heritage and educational importance.

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