El Campet de la Sal

El Campet de la Sal site was located as a result of the remodelling works of the Cardona football field and the construction of new changing rooms. The archaeological intervention, led by municipal archaeologist Ainhoa Pancorbo, was funded by the Generalitat de Catalunya and the Diputació de Barcelona. It consisted of the delimitation and excavation of those parts that somehow had to be affected by the constructive works. Today, the archaeological remains are covered by the facilities that led to the discovery.

The site is located in a plain less than 400 m to the southwest of the hill where Cardona Castle is located, about 35 m southeast of the Gothic wall that encircled the town. It is just one km away from the Salt Mountain. We are on the northwest bank of the salt valley, considered the oldest mines of rock salt in Europe; a key space for understanding the human occupation of this space.

There were documented up to three phases of occupation, corresponding to a Late Roman Republican settlement, an Early Medieval necropolis and several houses of Late Medieval period. The site covers a very broad chronological space, between the 2nd c. BC and the 14th c. AD. It allows us to understand a really unknown part of the history of Cardona, directly associated with the control of the extraction and trade of salt. It also allows us locating the origins of the village in the plain between the salt valley and the current nucleus.