Old bakehouse -Wéris

The baking oven consists of two parts located under the same roof. In the first, the baking house, the dough is made. In the second part, the oven part , the bread is baked in a wood-fired oven. On the street side, under the wooden awning at the back of the baking oven, you can see the loam-covered exterior of the oven vault . The baking oven was built at a safe distance from the house to prevent any fire from spreading to the houses.

The bread oven as we know it today has a very long history. The principle of a hearth and vault has existed for at least 4000 years.

An oven can be used for many different purposes , such as baking pottery, melting metal or fat, or roasting a piece of meat.

The oldest archaeological evidence of ovens dates back to the Neolithic Age, some 9,000 years ago , and was found in Syria. Furnaces have been found in Europe dating from about 6,500 years ago, for example in Rosmeer (Bilzen, Belgian Limburg). We are not sure if these were bread ovens. Since the oldest bread found in Switzerland dates back to 5,500 years ago, we can assume that ovens were used to bake bread back then.

Willem Vandenameele