After the First World War, the seventy-years old Luigi Contivecchi, general manager of the Royal Railways of Sardinia, proposed a project of reclamation, in order to establish the salt-works.
In the first decades of the twentieth century, Cagliari was an industrial bustling city, and the pond of Santa Gilla one of the most important centre. The evaporation salt ponds came into production in 1930 after the death of Luigi Contivecchi. According the father’s project, the son Guido built cutting-edge equipment and a village really socially advanced. The village, indeed was equipped with school, kindergarten and medical centre, and moreover, uncommon in those years in Italy, the workers’ houses were furnished with restroom.
In the middle of the twentieth century the village housed the families of more than five hundred workers, to which must be added thousands seasonal workers during the harvest period. A similar number of workers was registered only in the mines
The social climate and good relations changed in the fifties, when Luigi Galimberti, married to one of the granddaughters of the Contivecchi, began to manage the salt-works. The new owner imposed a corporate restructuring that halved the number of workers and generated sharp contrasts with the unions especially after the introduction of the Workers’ Statute. Consequently during the sixties, characterized by protests and strikes, the hamlet, which also included the infirmary, the recreational club and a canteen, depopulated and nowadays it remains only a few traces. Despite to the crisis, the production in the salt-works still resists: raw material (sea water) and energy sources (sun and wind) are, indeed, completely free.
During the Seventies, in the scene of the lagoon a new figure appears: Nino Rovelli, owner of Rumianca and good customer of salt-works, which has been one of the support of the creation of the port channel.