The salt pans at Sečovlje are one of the most extraordinary landscapes on the Slovenian coast — a vast, flat expanse of evaporation pools stretching to the Croatian border, where salt has been harvested using traditional methods for over seven hundred years. The park divides into two sections: the working Lera saltpans, where production continues to this day using wooden tools and hand-raking techniques unchanged since the Middle Ages, and the older Fontanigge section where the old saltworkers' houses have been preserved as an open-air museum.
The birdwatching here is exceptional. More than 270 species have been recorded in the park, including flamingos, avocets, herons, and dozens of wading species that use the pans as a stopover on their migration routes. Spring and autumn are the best seasons for birds; summer is peak season for the salt harvest. The small Salt Museum inside the park explains the production process and the social history of the saltworkers who once lived in the Fontanigge settlement.
story: "The saltworkers who lived in Fontanigge had a unique property arrangement: each family owned a specific set of salt pans and the house attached to them, but the land itself belonged to the town of Piran. When industrial salt production made small-scale harvesting unviable in the 20th century, the entire community was abandoned almost overnight. Today the ruins and the remaining wildlife have been protected as a nature park."