Welcome to Cardona

Cardona Town Council has made recovering its heritage one of the focal points of the town’s social and economic development. In order to ensure its projects fulfil its commitment to managing heritage and to promote cultural tourism, the Historic Cardona Foundation, a private foundation based on a municipal initiative, was established in 2006.

Salt mining and the Salt Valley are Cardona’s raison d’être and explain the splendour of its past. The town’s charter, one of Europe’s oldest, acknowledges the townspeople’s eternal right to obtain salt.

The castle, a fortress that was never breached and the last bastion of Catalan freedom, was the seat of the powerful family of counts-dukes of Cardona, “Kings without a Crown” who were rich salt nobles related to Europe’s major families.

Because of the wealth from salt and Cardona’s strategic location as a crossroads, there developed a medieval town governed by merchants and carriers of goods who built the historic centre of Cardona, which now has cultural heritage of national interest status.

Today Cardona, which is located in exceptional natural surroundings, is to be awarded status as a Health Town where residents and visitors can enjoy a broad range of nature activities.

Visit Cardona and discover who the Salt Lords were!