How did people preserve food before the invention of fridges or freezers? For thousands of years the answer was simple: salt. Even though its properties were well-known to most cultures, not everyone had easy access to it; Venetians were of course a rare exception since the lagoon is naturally rich in salt, and early on they found it to be a great product which could be sold for great sums of money to foreign merchants. It is no exaggeration that Venice’s rise in power owes a great deal to salt; so much so that around 500 years ago the Venetian Republic constructed the Magazzini del Sale, as few as 9 huge warehouses exclusively for storage salt. Nowadays, you won’t find much salt inside any of them as their size has proven perfect for events, art exhibitions and boat docks.
