![Still life by Willem Claeszoon Heda, 1634. The artist placed the silver salt cellar in the exact centre of the picture.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/stilleben-von-willem-claeszoon-heda-300x225.jpg)
The salt of life
Salt is much more than just a seasoning. Salt is essential to life, and therefore a valuable commodity. For centuries Switzerland was dependent on salt imports. In 1836, a determined German drilling specialist and ‘salinist’ changed that for good.
![Woman in front of a salt heap in Schweizerhalle, 1950.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/frau-vor-einem-salz-haufen-in-schweizerhalle-1950-300x288.jpg)
![Salt production through evaporation of seawater, from Georgius Agricola: De re metallica libri XII, 1566.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/salzgewinnung-1566-177x300.jpg)
![Depiction of salt production in the Halle saltworks (Saxony-Anhalt), copperplate engraving, dating from around 1670.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/salzproduktion-halle-300x237.jpg)
![Kaspar Stockalper vom Thurm from Brig, painting by his son-in-law Georges Christophe Manhaft, dating from 1672.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/kaspar-stockalper-241x300.jpg)
![The salt mines of Bex, Canton of Vaud.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/die-salzminen-von-bex-vd-300x132.jpg)
![Drilling rig at the saltworks in Schweizerhalle. Photograph by Edith Bader-Rausser, before 1959.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/bohrturm-der-saline-in-schweizerhalle-gbe-131870-lm-1711401-224x300.jpg)
![The ‘Saldome 2’, the domed salt storage facility in Rheinfelden, completed in 2012.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/saldomezweiinnen-300x225.jpg)
![The drilling rigs of the Riburg saltworks in Rheinfelden near Möhlin, now a listed historic monument.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/bohrturme-der-saline-riburg-in-rheinfelden-300x127.jpg)