Salt Memorial impressed in Olomouc, it will be built in Crikevnice

A visualisation of the "Memorial to the women who cooked salt" in Crikevnica, Croatia. Source: Ilona Németh
"The Monument to the Women Who Cooked Salt" attracted attention at the end of last year (2024) at Olomouc's National Heroes' Square and at the Moments exhibition at the Olomouc Museum of Art as part of the SEFO 2024 Triennial.

The Slovak artists Ilona Németh and Marián Ravacz created the memorial as a tribute to the women from Crikevnica, Croatia, who extracted salt from the sea during World War II through hard work. “We designed the memorial out of white concrete into which we implanted pieces of salt stone. Although the installation is dedicated to the women of Crikevnica, it is meant to be a symbolic story that tells about female strength in general,” explains Ilona Németh.

The art project was also originally intended for the town of 11,000 on the Adriatic Sea, but lost local political support and did not materialise. That is why it was able to come to Olomouc. However, with the arrival of the new year, everything is different and the memorial in Crikevnica is expected to be unveiled in mid-May 2025.

The story of salt mining

During World War II, the men left to fight, leaving only old people, children and women in Croatian towns and villages. In a situation of general critical shortage of anything, they had to survive somehow. There was also a shortage of salt, which the women in Crikvenica seized upon – they scooped up clean sea water and carried it in 30-litre barrels, while children lugged around bags of up to eight litres. They boiled the water secretly at night in large pots or split iron barrels of about 50 litres. The amount of salt obtained varied between 3 and 8 kilograms per 100 litres of sea water. The salt was then exchanged for potatoes, grain or corn.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

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