Salt on the Faroe Islands – Trap The Faroe Islands

Inside SALT’s great hall, the building’s impressive dimensions become apparent. ÓLAVUR FREDERIKSEN/TRAP FAROE ISLANDS, 2022

The old salt silo at Drelnes in Ørðavíkarlíð has been restored and given new life as a cultural centre. It has retained the name SALT, which now stands for Sound Art & Live Theatre. ÓLAVUR FREDERIKSEN/TRAP FAROE ISLANDS, 2022

Fishing and the production of salted and dried cod required large quantities of salt from the end of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century. For many years, schooners and salt steamers with salt from the Mediterranean area came to the Faroe Islands several times a year. What was not immediately loaded aboard the fishing vessels was stored in warehouses around the islands. However, this arrangement was not the most appropriate. Therefore, the general manager of the Danish branch of the French Compagnie Commerciale des Sels Marins, Otto G. Helwigh, and merchant Magnus Dahl and solicitor of the high court Edward Mitens, both Faroese, took the initiative to build a salt silo.

A public limited company, North Atlantic Salt Company A/S, was founded for the purpose. The share capital was DKK 100,000, of which the French salt syndicate owned DKK 70,000 and the aforementioned founders DKK 10,000 each. Edward Mitens became the public limited company’s first chairman of the board.

The silo, designed by a French architect, was built by the Danish construction company C.G. Jensen in Copenhagen and built at Drelnes near Tvøroyri, where plans had already been made to build quays for shipping coal mined in the nearby mountains. Construction began in 1937 and was completed in 1938, and it ended up costing about DKK 350,000. With a floor area of 1,000 m² and a height of about 25 m, the silo could hold 10,000 tonnes. It had a 110 m long conveyor belt that could transport around 50 tonnes per hour.

The first cargo, 6,300 tonnes, arrived on the French steamer Albi on 17th of November 1938 and the first salt was shipped on 8th of February the following year to the fishing vessel Godthaab, owned by the local shipping company P/F N.J. Mortensen. On October 9 1941, the silo was bombed by a German airplane, and the extensive damage was compounded by a storm in February 1944. The silo then stood more or less as a ruin until it was rebuilt in 1946‑48, and then it was used a salt silo again until the 1980s. It then fell into disrepair due to lack of maintenance.

After the turn of the millennium, some of the local enthusiasts began to develop the idea of rebuilding the silo. They contacted the municipal council in 2002, and the vicar Ólavur Rasmussen became the prime mover in the project to completely renovate the silo and use it as a cultural centre. This became a reality with financial support from the Danish state, the Faroese Løgting, A.P. Møller Foundation and the municipality, and the construction process began in 2013. The costs of completely renovating the building amounted to about DKK 80 million.

All the main features of the original architecture have been preserved. On the original silo, SALT had been written on the roof in large, white letters. The new cultural centre has kept the name, but now composed of Sound Art & Live Theatre – SALT. The first major event took place in May 2017 and since then, the cultural centre has been used for a large number of events. The amateur theatre association Suðuroyar Sjónleikarfelag has SALT as its base.

Further reading