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 large 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 storing salt. Nowadays, you won’t find much salt inside any of them but they are proven perfect for events, art exhibitions, concerts and even as boat docks.
