Just behind the chapel of Sant Francesc de s’Estany, you will find this statue of a salt worker by the sculptor Pedro Juan Hormigo, created in homage to all those who laboured to extract salt throughout history. The sculpture is inspired by the typical image of an Ibizan salt worker known as a salinero, depicted with a basket on his head.
The sculpture, cast in bronze, was inaugurated on 7 April 2007 and measures 2.15 metres including the pedestal (the salt worker sculpture itself measures 1.85 metres). As with Hormigo’s other works, space and the void is a prominent feature, with the piece constructed as the casing for a body with a hollow interior. The features of the face are not clearly defined because, as the sculptor explained when presenting his work, that he wished to “pay homage to all those salineros who over the centuries toiled to extract the salt”.
If you visit Sant Francesc de s’Estany at dusk, it is a fantastic time to contemplate how the sun sets over the salt pans with the figure of the salt worker as witness in the twilight.
