QR Veyre-Monton – Hameaux 2
Banal oven
In the Middle Ages, the banal rights or banality that the local lord could exercise over his subjects meant that villagers were required to bake their bread in a village oven. This also applied to communal mills and presses, and were subject to the payment of a levy, a banality-due, often paid in kind. These seigneurial privileges were abolished in 1793 and the banal ovens often became simple community facilities. Despite being a symbol of feudalism and of the Ancien Régime, the banal oven of Soulasse kept its name even after the Revolution, as evidenced by the commune’s cadastral maps from 1821.
The old oven is brought out every year during the Fête du Pain, the Bread Festival, in early October, enjoyed by hundreds of people.