Salinas de Tenefé, located in Pozo Izquierdo, in the municipality of Santa Lucía de Tirajana (southeast Gran Canaria), is one of the best-preserved historic saltworks in the Canary Islands. Built in the late 18th century, it supplied salt for generations to the ships fishing the Canary-Saharan fishing grounds, and once relied on three windmills to raise water between ponds — hence its other name, Salinas de los Tres Molinos (Saltworks of the Three Windmills) — of which only one survives today. Its 386 crystallising ponds have yielded, for more than 250 years, a virgin sea salt produced through the same artisanal process as ever.

The saltworks have been listed as a Site of Cultural Interest (Bien de Interés Cultural), with Ethnological Site status, since 2005, and form part of the Tenefé Cultural Park, a 200,000 m² site — 20,000 m² of which are salt ponds — that combines salt-making heritage with aboriginal archaeological remains dating back to the 12th century. For more than a decade, the Navarro family, together with the company BRC Infraestructuras Hidráulicas, has brought the site back from neglect, combining traditional salt production with guided tours, an interpretation centre, and an on-site restaurant.

Its flagship product is Flor de Sal, hand-harvested above the water’s surface and recognised as the most awarded salt in the Canary Islands, with more than 80 trace elements and 50% less sodium than common salt. Alongside it, the company produces salt flakes, fine salt, medium-grain salt, and coarse salt, also distinguished with Canary Islands awards.

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