Welcome to the medieval capital of “White Gold”, the former salt granary of the kingdom of France and one of the most important Atlantic ports in the Middle Ages. In the 11th century, the village of Bourgneuf-en-Retz (now Villeneuve-en-Retz) flourished thanks to the exploitation and marketing of salt in Europe, long before Guérande and Noirmoutier.
The bay of Bourgneuf, formerly known as the “Bay of Brittany”, is renowned for having been Europe's largest salt-producing area until the 16th century, shaping the economic development of the Pays de Retz and ensuring its prosperity and international renown. Several hundred ships from the Iberian Peninsula, the British Isles and all over Europe docked here, turning the Port du Collet into a hub of the salt trade. They loaded this rare commodity : salt from the bay. Salt was as important in those days as oil is today. Until the 18th century, salt workers produced 30,000 tonnes of salt a year, until the bay silted up, bringing an end to salt exports from the Port du Collet. Today, following the restoration and reactivation of the salt marshes by enthusiasts in the 2000s, three salt workers operate a dozen or so salt pans in Villeneuve-en-Retz and Moutiers-en-Retz.
From the 14th century onwards, buildings were erected to store the salt harvested from the many salt marshes around Bourgneuf, to allow it to dry over the winter. The salt marsh harvests were then deposited in the form of millstones known as "mulons", in what were known as "salorges" : a vast wooden shed resting on stone masonry buttresses. Mules sometimes wait in these sheds for several years.
Located at the entrance to the village of Bourgneuf, the salorges, which today house the Tourist Office and La Savonnerie de Marcel, were for many years “salt granaries”. However, the last old salorge in Bourgneuf is the one that houses the soap factory. While salt harvested from the marshes used to be dried here, today it's soaps 🧼 that dry here, sometimes made with marine clay from the Moutiers-en-Retz salt marshes... We've come full circle.
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