Lo Pan Ner - The Breads of the Alps (Introd)

The bread that unites the Alps

Lo Pan Ner - I pani delle Alpi is the great cross-border festival dedicated to rye bread, which every October relights the communal ovens throughout the Alps. In the Aosta Valley, it involves dozens of municipalities and hundreds of volunteers, with the participation of territories in Lombardy, Piedmont, the Canton of Grisons and Valais in Switzerland, and Savoy in France. The municipality of Introd (Province of Aosta), at the entrance to the Gran Paradiso valleys, is among the participants.

The ovens of Introd

In Introd, the festival involves the oven at Maison Bruil and the one in the hamlet of Norat. The latter, built in 1978 by the municipal administration, is today the only functioning communal oven in the village: a living testimony of a tradition that, in the 19th century, counted up to seventeen ovens in the area, when rye was a widespread crop. During the festival, the ovens are lit to bake pan ner, the black bread made with predominantly rye flour.

A tradition twice a year

Introd experiences black bread culture at two distinct times: the Fiha di Pan Nir in the first ten days of August and Lo Pan Ner, the cross-border circuit, in October. This signifies how deeply rooted this product is in the identity of the village and the entire Aosta Valley. The regional event is promoted as part of the valorization of the region's Franco-Provençal cultural and linguistic heritage.