Bakery and Vicolo Storto, Pompei

Pompei’s largest bakery is located in the Vicolo Storto area, a market place area similar to the Forum, which is also known for housing the only known brothel in the city. The building is one of a remarkable thirty five mills and bakeries discovered in the ruins of Pompei; by contrast, no other sufficiently preserved Roman bakeries have been recovered anywhere else in the world. The bakeries of Pompei therefore give us a unique insight into the advanced milling industry possessed by the Roman Empire. It is thought that the majority of citizens would have travelled to bakeries to collect bread, as there was no facility to bake it at home.

The machinery used to produce bread here consists of millstones, formed from igneous rock, which were turned by mules or donkeys, grinding grains that fell through an hourglass-shaped funnel and through the millstones. It has been suggested that whilst this appears a fairly primitive method, there may been improved techniques in operation within larger cities such as Rome and Naples. The mills of Rome were hard places to work – Apuleius, a Roman author, recorded the hardships of the women, slaves and animals that were put to work in bakeries. The playwright Plautus himself worked in a bakery at one time, and wrote about the struggles of life in the mill.