Ston Saltworks

The saltpans at Ston have been worked since antiquity and are among the oldest still in production in Europe, laid out in a grid of shallow basins with names given to each, worked by letting sea water in and moving it as it concentrates until the salt is raked by hand. Salt was the point of the place: the Republic of Ragusa took control here in 1333 and the revenue from these pans was a significant share of its income, which is why it then built the fortified walls that run over the hill between Ston and Mali Ston - more than five kilometres of them, put up to protect a saltworks. The harvest still draws volunteers each summer.

What you actually see

• Pans worked for about two thousand years - among Europe's oldest in production.
• Hand raking in summer - the harvest still done the same way.
• Ragusan control from 1333 - the salt revenue that funded the republic.
• Walls built to protect salt - over five kilometres across the isthmus.

When to go

June to September, when the pans are working and being harvested. Two hours.

Honest expectations

Outside the season the pans are flooded and quiet. There is no shade at all and the site is very hot in July and August. The walls are a separate ticket and a hard climb.

Nearby

Ston's walls climb the hill above; Mali Ston and its oyster beds are north.