Forno a paglia di Sant’Agata di Puglia

Once very common, today in the whole area of the Monti Dauni there are only 3 examples of this type of oven, which used an Arabic technique for baking bread. The other two (working!) are located in Orsara di Puglia and Roseto Valfortore; all date back to the fifteenth century.

The feeding of these furnaces was done by burning the straw, in a room below the flint, which was sealed by a sort of dome. This method of cooking allows you to make loaves of large size and still crispy crust. The ovens are artifacts indissolubly connected to the social life of women, made in rural societies of real rituals. Bread-making was one of them: with its rhythms and its rules to be respected. One of these was the engraving by the housewives of symbols on the mass to be baked so that doors when cooked without doubt attribute the property of the loaves.