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READ – WORLD HERITAGE: PROGRAMME MANIFESTO

Bread – World Heritage is conceived as an international mosaic programme of research, documentation, and educational projects, recognising the profound symbolic role bread has played throughout human history, across religions, cultures, and everyday life. Researchers who study the phenomenon of bread have mostly focused on individual aspects without recognising the ontological whole of the Civilization of Bread—its broader cultural and historical context and the interconnectedness of its many dimensions. The Bread – World Heritage project seeks to overcome this fragmented approach by exploring bread as an integral phenomenon of human civilisation.

The Civilization of Bread is a colourful mosaic and, at the same time, a kaleidoscope of historical, technological, political, and cultural events. It is deeply intertwined with the destinies of gods and heroes, saints and murderers, dictators and revolutionaries, the rich and the poor. The fascinating and often unfathomable roads, pathways, and detours, stations and crossroads shared by man and bread unfold across time and space, memory and oblivion. The poetics of bread permeates human culture and the human spirit—in prayers, rituals, religions, songs, proverbs, sayings and curses, literature, painting, and music.

This is a story of humanity’s past, present, and future—of beliefs, hopes, pain, and joy. Bread has changed the histories of countries and the destinies of peoples. Empires, cultures, and religions have been built and disappeared over bread.

Programmatic Objectives

• Holistic Research: To overcome fragmented disciplinary boundaries by establishing an interdisciplinary framework for studying the Civilization of Bread as an ontological whole.
• Heritage Documentation and Safeguarding: To identify, document, archive, and safeguard the tangible and intangible heritage of bread—from ancient techniques and craftsmanship to oral traditions, rituals, symbols, and collective memory.
• Education and Cultural Dialogue: To develop educational programmes and digital resources that use the universal story of bread to foster intercultural understanding, historical awareness, and dialogue between cultures and generations.
• International Cooperation and Public Engagement: To connect museums, universities, researchers, cultural institutions, and master bakers through exhibitions, symposia, publications, educational initiatives, and other forms of international cultural cooperation, presenting bread as a living heritage shared by humanity.