Lo pan ner - Black bread festival
18 October 2025 - 19 October 2025
The ovens in the villages of many municipalities in the Aosta Valley will light up on to bake the traditional black bread on the occasion of the "Lo Pan Ner" festival.
Ovens and black bread
Many Aosta Valley villages have at least one community oven, where in the past families used to take turns baking rye bread for their personal consumption, usually once a year, at the beginning of winter.
Simple bread, made with slightly leavened wheat and rye, good for feeding families isolated for many months through the winter season. Chestnuts, cumin, and dried fruit would sometimes be added to the traditional rye flour bread.
When eaten fresh, it has a delicious fragrance, but in the past it was preserved on special wooden racks, known as “Ratelë”, for several months. A special tool was needed to break this bread, a sort of guillotine called “copapan” still in use today. The preserved bread had to be dipped in broth, warm milk, or sauce from meat cooked for a long time. Like many traditional Aosta Valley dishes, it was treated to have a long shelf life.
Some ovens have been restored and are still in use today: an opportunity for local social gatherings and handing down local traditions.
All the ovens of the participating towns and villages are geolocated on the event website.
Program
The program of events at the various village ovens is updated here
Below is the program for October 19th, which will take place in Arnad (in the Queyaz area, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.).
- Exhibition of rye bread submitted by village bakeries to the competitions included in the initiative;
- Demonstration of bread making and baking in wood-fired ovens, with the opportunity to knead and bake your own loaf;
- Temporary exhibition of agricultural tools, handicrafts, and vintage household utensils;
- Live demonstration of rye milling with miller Giorgio Pagliero;
- Food and wine market selling black bread and local products, with a refreshment stand organized by the "Lo Doil" association of Arnad;
- Demonstration of ancient crafts by the "Lo Travail d'in co" ethnographic group of Arnad;
- Games and workshops for children to discover bread and Aosta Valley traditions;
- At 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., guided tours of the village and its treasures, including the parish church, the chapel of Sant'Antonio, the Ohtà fortress, and the exterior of Vallaise Castle;
- at 3:30 p.m., a cooking demonstration with pastry chef Tommaso Foglia;
- at 6:00 p.m., awards ceremony for the rye bread competition.
Note - this information is not directly connected to the Cammino Balteo path but it is part of the Aosta Valley tourist offer.