In October 2002, with the aim of promoting the Cardona salt blooms and the remarkable natural heritage and material existing on the site as a result of the exploitation of this precious, mineral resource down the ages, the Cardona Town Council decided to convert the old Nieves Mine site into the Salt Mountain Cultural Park.
Salt is the only edible mineral resource. This explains why salt has been exploited since the beginning of humanity, since as well as being edible it can also be used for many other purposes. In the past salt was also a highly valuable product because it was used to preserve foodstuffs, in fact it was the only way of doing so.
Thanks to the testimony of archaeological finds, we know that the Cardona salt deposits were already being exploited during the Neolithic period (4,500 – 2,500 BC). Cardona's salt continued to be exploited during the period of the Roman occupation of Catalonia too.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the ownership of the salt mountain was in the hands of the lords of Cardona. Salt and its exploitation was their main source of income, as well as the main reason for their enrichment and political ascendancy; the wealth generated by the salt turned the Viscounts first into the Counts (1375), and then into the Dukes of Cardona (1491).
At the beginning of the 20 th century the Catalan potassium basin was discovered, and the Unión Española de Explosivos, the enormous, state-run company for the manufacture of explosives, superphospates and fertiliser compounds took over the rights to the Cardona salt deposits.
In 1925, this company began a new industrial project for the extraction of sodium and potassium chloride from Cardona which included the opening of a new mine, a factory to treat the mineral, a connection between the two sites using a cable car and transport links to Barcelona port.
In 1929, the first trials of the new mining project began and in 1933 the new mine commenced full production - a production that was maintained until 1990, when the mine site at Cardona was closed for economic and, as it was being operated at a depth of 1,308 metres, safety reasons.

The Salt Mountain Cultural Park, apart from communicating the importance of the salt phenomenon to Cardona, is also a homage to the miners who worked this mine and turned it into one of the most important in Europe.