Each hamlet has its own ovens. Sometimes in ruins, sometimes intact, it would be a shame to pass by without taking a closer look: I forni - bread ovens - were central to village life, like chapels or the village squares. Use of the ovens began to decline with the advent of World War 1: limited manpower meant less cultivation of wheat, and therefore less flour for breadmaking.

Those ovens which continued to be used were those located near or within homes. Social rank often defined the position of the oven: wealthier families had ovens inside or near the house, while others were outside and on the edge of the hamlet, and ovens were shared.

Bread was baked on Saturdays. Enough bread would be made to last until the following Saturday. The bread ovens were used until 1926, at Ornetu. In 1935, an artisanal bakery set up shop in Oreta - it closed in the early sixties. Nowadays, bread is sold by a mobile baker. Pietracorbara's ovens are now generally only lit during special holidays, at Easter or at Christmas, to bake local pastry specialties. At Ornetu, a restored oven is used to bake savory pastries during the high season.

The ovens were also used for another important purpose: to bake the chestnuts before grinding them into the all-important chestnut flour used in many authentic Corsican recipes.

The oven walk