10. A museum dedicated to bread, though it contains no bread
In Ulm, in the German State of Baden-Wurttemberg, one can find the European Bread Museum, a facility celebrating humanity’s 6,000-year history of making bread. Over 6,000 books, 16.000 artifacts, and breadmaking equipment and tools fill its galleries. Its website claims that “Those who take a closer look at bread see our society with sharpened eyes”. Yet there is no bread to see in the Bread Museum. The museums’ extensive art collection, which includes works by Pablo Picasso, offers depictions of bread, farming, harvesting, milling, and baking. According to the museum’s website, “Art makes it possible to view the broad subject of bread and food from surprising perspectives”. One such perspective is that bread is representative of all food, and the need to ensure sufficient supplies and distribution of food globally.
The museum is housed in a former grain and salt storehouse, built during the Renaissance. The building itself is a registered cultural landmark, and it has been home to the Bread Museum since 1991. Its steeply pitched roof features numerous tiers of windows. Occasionally, the building’s upper floors are opened, allowing visitors to enjoy views of Ulm and the Danube River upon which the city is sited. The museum is an art museum on one side, and covers technology, nutrition, and history on the other. Its website states “The two halves complement each other”. Like bread and butter, one may think. So, a visitor to the museum may come away with a greater appreciation of the importance of bread in human history, but no bread itself. Fortunately, there are bakeries and shops nearby to alleviate their hunger.