The ruling of October 13, 2008, marked an episode in the long administrative history of the salt pans. Almost two decades later, while actions have been taken to restore a mill and transform Arrecife's coastline, an essential issue remains pending: how to guarantee the integral conservation of a heritage that explains the relationship of the Lanzarote capital with fishing, wind, and salt production.
For a large part of the 20th century, the Puerto Naos salt pans were a relevant part of Arrecife's traditional economy. Seawater, wind power, and human labor were combined in facilities that supplied salt to a fishing activity closely related to the Canary-Saharan fishing grounds. The windmills lifted the water, the boiling vats and channels led it to the salt pans, and through evaporation, an indispensable product for preserving fish was obtained.
Today, the remains of those facilities constitute a material memory of the city. Their history is not limited to deteriorated windmills or walls along the coast: it includes a production system, a way of using the territory, and an economic activity that helped define Arrecife before its urban and tourist expansion.
The date of October 13 refers to a significant episode in the administrative history of this heritage. On that day in 2008, the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands issued a ruling related to the expiration of the first file to declare the Naos Salt Pans an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC). The resolution did not grant this category to the complex nor ordered its restoration, but it is a relevant piece for understanding why the recognition of its historical values has not automatically translated into its material recovery.
An industrial landscape built around water and wind
The Naos salt pans functioned as an organized system. The windmills lifted seawater from the wells and transferred it to the boiling vats. From there, a network of channels distributed it to the salt pans, where evaporation favored salt crystallization. Walls, reservoirs, warehouses, and other constructions completed facilities adapted to the environmental conditions of the coast.
Canarian heritage documentation identified among the historical salt flats in the area those of Herrero, dated approximately to 1920; those of Fuentes, around 1930, and those of Tomás Toledo, around 1935. Historical reconstructions place the number of salt flats that operated in the Puerto Naos area at six and attribute to the complex a maximum approximate production of 3,660 tons per year.
These figures help to understand the dimension of an activity closely linked to fishing and the canning industry. Salt was essential for prolonging the preservation of fish and sustaining an economic chain in which fishermen, salt flat workers, merchants, and transporters participated.
The architecture of these facilities followed a practical logic. The windmills, built largely of wood and equipped with multi-bladed metal rotors, used the wind to lift water. The wells, conduits, evaporation ponds, salt pans, and warehouses served complementary functions. Therefore, restoring a windmill without recovering or documenting its relationship with the rest of the structures only explains part of the salt production activity.
Production declined until it disappeared around the mid-1970s. In the following years, economic transformation and urban growth modified the Puerto Naos area. During the 1980s, several facilities located in the southern part disappeared, according to historical reconstructions of the area's evolution.
The change in landscape also meant a transformation of Arrecife's economic memory. Where production spaces once existed, other uses began to prevail. The heritage issue arose from the tension between urban development and the conservation of facilities that had lost their original function but not their historical value.
Heritage protection and the successive proceedings
The first procedure to designate the Naos Salt Flats as a Site of Cultural Interest, in the category of Monument, was initiated in 1997. The resolution of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, dated July 10 of that year, was published in the Official State Gazette on August 7. The file aimed to define the property located between the port of Naos and the Castillo de San José.
However, the procedure did not conclude with a definitive declaration. In 2003, its expiration and closure were declared, a decision that was subsequently the subject of judicial controversy. Ruling number 238/2008 of the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands, dated October 13, 2008, partially upheld the appeal filed against that administrative action.
The scope of the ruling must be clarified. The resolution questioned the retroactivity attributed to the expiration of the file, but did not itself declare the salt pans a Site of Cultural Interest nor did it order restoration work to be carried out. In 2010, the regional administration published a ruling to enforce the judgment that maintained the expiration and closure of the procedure, without preserving the questioned retroactive date.
The ruling was, therefore, a relevant episode in the administrative history of the complex, but it did not resolve its physical preservation.
Meanwhile, on June 17, 2003, a second procedure to declare it a BIC had been initiated. The resolution published in the Official Gazette of the Canary Islands on July 28, 2004, described the elements of the salt pans and established intervention criteria aimed at recovering their use, restoring their characteristics, facilitating public access, and promoting their cultural dissemination.
That documentation conceived the salt pans as a complex of industrial and ethnographic interest. Its value lay not exclusively in the windmills, but also in the relationship between wells, channels, salt pans, troughs, warehouses, and walls. Preservation should allow for an understanding of how the facility worked and its relationship with the fishing economy of the capital.
The second procedure also ended up being declared expired and closed. The subsequent processing included new controversies over the temporal effects of that decision, with administrative and judicial rulings published between 2010 and 2014.
What can be affirmed about current legal protection? The historical documentation consulted proves the initiation of both procedures and their subsequent expiration problems, but it is not enough to confirm a subsequent definitive declaration of the Naos Salt Pans as BIC. To establish their legal status as of October 13, 2026, it is necessary to consult the updated registry and request confirmation from the competent historical heritage bodies.
This caution does not mean that the complex lacks any urban planning or sectoral protection. The legal status of a property can depend on various instruments and regimes, in addition to its eventual declaration as an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC). Therefore, its current state should not be deduced exclusively from files processed two decades ago.
Urban planning envisioned a public space
Urban planning also incorporated proposals for the salt flats' surroundings. The documentation for Arrecife's urban planning includes the general open space system called Salinas de Naos Urban Park and foresees complementary open spaces and a pedestrian walkway around the complex's perimeter.
The urban planning thus recognizes the need to reconcile urban transformation with the conservation and perception of historical heritage. However, urban planning provisions do not demonstrate that the works have been executed, that the land is already public, or that funding is available to develop all the planned actions.
In 2026, the Arrecife City Council announced another initiative to expand the city's green spaces: the recovery of a plot of approximately 5,400 square meters next to the port, in the vicinity of the old Porto Naos pier. The action was linked to the removal of a concrete barrier and the creation of a new public and green space, as part of an agreement with the Port Authority of Las Palmas.
The initiative represents progress in the transformation of the coastline, but it must be distinguished from both the Salinas de Naos Urban Park envisioned in the urban planning and the restoration of the old salt facilities. Although the actions share the same geographical area, they do not necessarily constitute a single project nor allow us to state that the salt pans, wells, channels, and warehouses have been recovered.
Arrecife can gain new public spaces and improve its pedestrian walkways without this implying, by itself, the integral recovery of Puerto Naos's industrial heritage.
The mill next to San José Castle: from award to assembly work
One of the most concrete advances occurred with the salt mill located next to San José Castle. In 2025, the Lanzarote Centers of Art, Culture, and Tourism awarded a project for approximately 80,000 euros to restore the structure, whose deterioration had made the intervention necessary.
The works contemplated reviewing the salvageable elements, manufacturing new parts for the unrecoverable sections, and recovering essential components for the mill's operation. These included the blades, the rotor, the vane system, and the transmission mechanism, in addition to reinforcements on the support pillars.
On February 6, 2026, the start of the replacement of the wooden structure that was to support the turbine was reported. The assembly of this last piece was scheduled for February 10. The published information confirms that the intervention reached the assembly phase and, therefore, should not be described as a merely announced project.
However, the located documentation does not allow certification that all work was completely finished by the closing date of this article. To state that the restoration concluded, it would be necessary to have an official communication of completion, a reception report, or an updated material inspection.
It is also important to avoid confusion: restoring the mill next to San José Castle is not equivalent to recovering the historic salt pans of Puerto Naos. The intervention allows action on an emblematic element of the salt landscape, but it does not certify the restoration of the wells, conduits, cuts, and warehouses of the complex.
This is a specific action whose development has been publicly communicated, although its heritage scope is partial.
Walls, authorizations, and works pending verification
In 2026, the Arrecife City Council communicated that the Directorate General of Coasts and Management of the Canary Maritime Space had authorized an intervention promoted by the owners of an area of the old salt pans. The action was aimed at restoring and conserving walls and a mill near the route connecting Puerto Naos with San José Castle.
The authorization confirms that there was an administrative pathway to intervene in these elements, but it does not demonstrate that the works have been executed or that they have concluded satisfactorily. To determine their real scope, it would be necessary to verify the authorized project, the imposed conditions, the execution dates, and the current state of the structures.
The same prudence should be applied to the recovery proposals disseminated in previous years. Among the actions studied were the restoration of approximately 3,000 square meters of salt flats, intervention in two mills and two warehouses, improvement of drainage and access, and the creation of spaces for entry, stay, and landscape observation. It was also proposed to allocate some of the warehouses for cultural uses or an interpretation center.
The economic estimates associated with these proposals were around 1.5 million euros, although they required updating and specification before becoming a definitive execution budget. The existence of a study or an economic valuation does not demonstrate that the land has been acquired, the works awarded, or the actions executed.
To know the real status of this project, one would have to review the contracting files, possible land acquisitions or transfers, authorizations, and work certifications. Only then would it be possible to distinguish between actions carried out, those in progress, and those that remain proposals.
Nautical tourism and landscape recovery
The old salt flats have reappeared in initiatives aimed at transforming Arrecife's coastline. The Arrecife Bay Nautical Tourism Revitalization Plan includes landscape recovery of the environment and the sustainable transformation of Puerto Naos among its lines of action.
The incorporation of the salt flats into a tourism and landscape strategy offers an opportunity to connect industrial memory with new uses of the coast. But this opportunity will only materialize if the proposals translate into defined projects, economic resources, administrative coordination, and verifiable results.
The challenge is to prevent heritage from becoming solely a backdrop for new leisure spaces or tourist routes. The mills and salt flats must be preserved so that visitors can understand their operation, the relationship between their structures, and the importance of salt in Lanzarote's fishing economy.
Recovery must also take into account land ownership, the responsibilities of the administrations involved, and the limitations that may arise from coastal legislation and planning. These are issues that require documentation and coordination, not premature conclusions.
What still needs a documented answer
The history of the Naos salt pans demonstrates that recognizing their historical value has not been enough to guarantee comprehensive recovery. But it would also not be rigorous to claim that nothing has been done: the restoration of the mill next to the Castillo de San José reached a material phase of execution in 2026, an authorization to intervene in other elements was communicated, and urban actions aimed at expanding public spaces along the coastline have been announced.
The balance sheet requires separating these partial advances from the overall state of the complex. The fundamental questions remain concrete: what is the current legal status of heritage protection?, which elements retain their integrity?, which plots and constructions are publicly or privately owned?, what works have been completed?, which projects have funding and a schedule?, what part of the planning has actually been executed?
Answering them requires consulting updated heritage registers, Coastal Authority files, municipal documentation, public contracts, and work certifications. It also requires verifying on the ground the condition of the mills, walls, canals, and salt pans.
This is not about assigning responsibility without proof, but about establishing what decisions have been made, which have been executed, and what remains to be done. Documentary transparency is essential to evaluate conservation with verifiable criteria and to prevent announcements of new actions from replacing information about their results.
Recovering the salt pans is recovering a part of Arrecife
The Puerto Naos salt pans are part of a memory that deserves a more visible place in the history of Lanzarote. The island's image is usually associated with its volcanic landscapes, the work of César Manrique, and tourism development, but the capital's economy was also built through fishing, port trade, and salt production.
Conserving the salt pans would allow for the explanation of this dimension of the island's history and offer citizens a space where heritage, education, and landscape could coexist. To achieve this, the restoration should not be limited to preserving isolated elements, but should address the complex as a historical system formed by mills, wells, canals, salt pans, salt flats, and walls.
The ruling of October 13, 2008, was an important episode in the administrative history of this heritage, but it did not resolve its material future. Almost two decades later, the restoration of a mill and projects to transform the coastline represent advances that should be valued without confusing them with the integral recovery of the old salt flats.
The challenge remains to convert the recognition of its value into a continuous conservation policy, with public information on legal protection, projects, spending, and works carried out.
Because when a mill disappears or a section of the old cliffs is lost, it is not just a construction that is lost. A part of the explanation of how Arrecife worked, produced, and related to the sea disappears. Recovering Puerto Naos means preserving the material memory of an activity that contributed to defining the city and offering future generations the possibility of understanding it.
Documentary Sources
1. Official State Gazette. Resolution of July 10, 1997, from the Cabildo of Lanzarote, making public the initiation of the delimitation file for the Naos Salt Flats monument, published on August 7, 1997.
2. Official Gazette of the Canary Islands. Resolution published on July 28, 2004, regarding the second file for the declaration of the Naos Salt Flats as a Site of Cultural Interest.
3. Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands. Ruling number 238/2008, of October 13, on the expiration of the first heritage protection file.
4. Government of the Canary Islands. Resolution of February 22, 2010, on the execution of ruling number 238/2008, published in the BOC of March 16, 2010.
5. Government of the Canary Islands. Administrative and judicial documentation relating to the second heritage protection file and subsequent resolutions on its expiration.
6. Government of the Canary Islands. Urban planning documentation of Arrecife relating to the general open space system Naos Salt Flats Urban Park.
7. Art, Culture, and Tourism Centers of Lanzarote. Adjudication file for the restoration of the salt mill next to Castillo de San José, 2025.
8. Arrecife City Council. Municipal information from 2026 on the authorization from the Coastal Authority to intervene in walls and a mill of the old salt flats.
9. Arrecife City Council. 2026 municipal information on the recovery of a plot of approximately 5,400 square meters next to the old Porto Naos pier for a future green space.
10. Cabildo of Lanzarote and SPEL-Turismo Lanzarote. Documentation of the Arrecife Bay Nautical Tourism Revitalization Plan.
Documentary closing note: the current legal status of the BIC and the material completion of all actions have not been conclusively proven with the located documentation. The text distinguishes between historical procedures, urban development projects, administrative authorizations, and works whose execution has been communicated, without considering actions that lack sufficient documentary confirmation as completed.
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