The Sečovlje salts flats are the northernmost salt flats in the Mediterranean. The salt is produced in the traditional way based on a 700-year-old method that harmonizes man and nature. Over the centuries, a unique habitat has formed for halophytic plants and animals and migrating birds. The cultural heritage, which reflects centuries of work by saltmakers, is extremely rich.
The Sečovlje salt pans are today the largest coastal marsh wetlands (750 hectares), and at the same time the most important Slovenian locality from the ornithological point of view. The variety of the bird species on this area, under the aspect of nesting and wintering, is much larger than on any other comparable locality of the kind. Until present date 272 bird species have been established in the Sečovlje salina, with some 90 breeders among them. On the basis of these facts, the Sečovlje Salina Nature Park, the Government of the Republic of Slovenia in the year 2001 proclaimed the area of Sečovlje Salina a nature park and the Museum of Salt-making a cultural monument of national importance. The Salina is extremely important as an extraordinary assortment of various ecosystems, combined of transition forms between sea water, brackish, fresh water and land ecosystems.
What the park offers you:
- Walking and bicycle trails furnished with information signs.
- Salt production that runs year-round. Most interesting from June to September when the crystallized salt is collected from the saltpans.
- Lera Salt Shop in a restored salt flat building. The ground floor houses a shop selling salt, salt-related items, and other local products. The second floor hosts art exhibitions.
- Buildings with theatre showing films about the salt flats, a multimedia room, and a viewing platform.
- Bird watching. Fontanigge, the southern section of the park, is an area of exceptional natural significance where white herons stroll between the remains of saltmakers’ houses and seagulls fly overhead. To reach the entrance to this part of the park, cross the Sečovlje border control point and just before the bridge over the Dragonja River, turn right onto the road that runs a good four kilometers along the estuary to the mouth of the river.
- The Saltworks Museum demonstrates the traditional medieval method of producing salt and a view of a traditional saltmaker’s house. The museum is open from April 1 to October 31.
- In Thalasso Spa Lepa Vida Amids the saltpans you can indulge yourself with a variety of wellness and relaxations programms.In the middle of the salt fields it offers you the gifts of the sea which have a refreshing impact on the body, establish balance in the body, give it energy as well as nourish and regenerate the skin. You can choose from different treatments with natural products from the Sečovlje Salina Nature Park: salt-pan mud and brine, salt, and sea water. Thalasso Spa is opened every day between 11 a.m. and 5.00 p.m. For more info turn to: www.thalasso-lepavida.si
Access to the park:
The Sečovlje Salina Nature Park is 130 kilometers from Ljubljana. In addition to arriving by car, access to the park is also possible by boat from Piran.
Information Center
In the warm half of the year, the park is open from 8:00 to 20:00; in winter, from 8:00 to 17:00.
Entrance fee is collected at the entrances to the park.