Bread in museums (1). Paneum Bread Museum, Austria

• The Paneum Museum is housed in a new building with avant-garde architecture in Asten, near Linz, Austria.

The museum was designed with the aim of introducing us to the fascinating story of bread, from the beginning to the present day.

Starting from the idea that "bread is an essential food in the world", Peter Augendopler, owner of the company Backaldrin, created this space dedicated to a better knowledge of the history and culture of bread.

The exhibition presents the culture of bread production over thousands of years, the exhibits being collected over the course of 30 years.
On an area of ​​almost 1.000 square meters, 1.200 exhibits can be viewed. The collection includes Egyptian artifacts, Peruvian totems and Meissen porcelain, Chinese grain vessels, chests and guild insignia, paintings and thousands of books.

The idea of ​​a bread exhibition was born in the mind of the owner of the Backaldrin bakery, Peter Augendopler, years ago and everything started from his desire to know more about the history of bread, to learn from the bakery art of "yesterday" in order to translate it in the bakery art of "tomorrow". The collection began with a statuette of a confectioner, made of Meissen porcelain and acquired in the late 1980s, with other pieces being added later, making it one of the largest collections in the world.

Every object in the collection shows the passion for bread and proves that it means, above all, a part of our culture.

The Paneum Museum – the fascinating story of bread

Paneum is the space that revives the history and culture of bread, at the same time reconstructing the "road" of bread, which starts from agricultural lands, continues in mills and bakeries, ending on the tables in our homes.

Created as an architectural journey into the world of bread, Paneum is a fusion of angles and curves, light and dark, tradition and innovation.

The steel exterior of the building contrasts with its wooden interior structure, and the curved lines of the architecture accompany and invite visitors to discover all areas of the museum.

Another original idea in the architecture of the museum is the spiral staircase, which itself is an element that unites the contrasts between history and modernism.