Resilience

The Dictionary of the Royal Academy of Language defines the term "resilience" as the human capacity to assume extreme situations in a flexible manner and survive them.

This term can also be used in the case of the Valle Salado. This is a landscape with natural, cultural, social and economic characteristics noted for its capacity to survive events throughout history, to absorb pressures, resist shocks and always emerge once again albeit changed or even strengthened.

The Cultural Landscape of Valle Salado de Añana is the result of the evolution of a workplace in a natural environment that has adapted to the needs of its owners and workers over generations, developing a unique culture based on the "expertise" of the salt workers that have preserved its identity unchanged.

The Añana salt works are still in operation and, therefore, have become the living memory of a process in constant adaptation and transformation, where a range of solutions are applied to the valley's historical and cultural heritage.

The system chosen to produce the "cleanest" salt and ensure its viability justified the constant transformations and still justifies the "struggle-research" for the coherent sustainability of the landscape.

The effects were not only socio-economic in nature, there were also environmental problems, such as floods, which the valley learned to understand and survive. This unsurpassed adaptability and continuous improvement causes a feeling of appreciation for the incredible simplicity of the solutions applied. The same can be said regarding its adaptation to the environment, with a unique aesthetic value based on the shapes, materials and techniques in an ongoing ecological and environmental balance.