Ses Salines: salt capital
Ses Salines is located in the southern corner of Majorca. The sleepy village is now a thing of the past; in recent times, it has developed into a really appealing place, with a special sensation of awakening while not leaving its traditions behind. Here, much revolves around one product – salt. The place is the salt or “white gold” capital, if you will.
Real Estate Mallorca – Ses Salines
Fine flower of salt
Extremely popular with gourmets in particular is the premium version – the precious flower of salt, also known as fleur de sel or flor de sal. It is extracted about seven kilometres away at Es Trenc beach, as too is the normal table salt. The saltworks gave the town and entire municipality its name, and there is a history of more than 2,000 years of salt extraction here.
Paradise for bird lovers
A wide variety of birds have chosen this spot of earth to live or to take a rest. Throughout the year, you can spot about 170 bird species here including flamingos, stilts, redshanks, shovellers, ospreys, Eleonora’s falcons and peregrine falcons.
Fish cooked in a salt crust
The flor de sal is sold in upmarket shops in the area, and as a souvenir, it’s always a success. It has such a gentle and mild flavour, not only cooks will be pleased with this gift. You may find Ses Salines irresistible with some of its beautiful shops offering tasteful decorative items and kitchen accessories for your own property in Majorca, for example. Along with the shops, cafés and restaurants such as Cassai, with its daring mix of furnishings, are also joined by traditional family restaurants like Casa Manolo, which is right by the church. This establishment is famed on the island for its fish dishes and authentic Majorcan cuisine. Would you be tempted to sample the fare? You absolutely have to try the mouth-watering fish in a salt crust, the various tapas or the caldereta de bogavante, which is a lobster and fish stew – so good it’s out of this world! And other specialities such as the calamar a la potera, which is squid cooked in its ink, are also not to be missed…
Classical music in the granary
Hotel Can Bónico, a manor house from the 13th century that has been converted into luxurious accommodation, promises an excellent stay. In the old granary here, no grain has been stored for a long time now – the nutritious crops having made way for a shiny grand piano. That is to say, the granary has been made into a “performance venue”, setting the scene for wonderful, small and excellent, live classical music concerts.
Dancing horses
In summer, the horses get to dance in the central Plaça de San Bartolomé in Ses Salines – as part of the deeply-rooted horse festival at the end of August called the Fiesta del Caballo. It’s a kind of street show, and the animals with riders parade and perform lots of jumps and pirouettes to the sounds of the flute. But the enthusiasm of the spectators reaches its peak when the impressive horses rise up and prance on their hind legs.
Southernmost tip
The municipality of Ses Salines also encompasses the southern end of the (Majorcan) world – the Cap de Ses Salines. Distance to Majorca’s capital city of Palma: approximately 60 kilometres. Distance to Africa: just 150 kilometres.