Oldest entirely preserved bread on display in Galați

A bread cooked in Genoa, Italy in 1891, brought to Galati, Romania by sailor Vasile Pamfile and donated to the History Museum of Galati by School No. 6, has been kept intact and sets the world record for the Oldest Bread (Preserved Entirely), according to the World Record Academy.

The sailor Vasile Pamfile was part of the crew of the cruiser “Elisabeta” who, in 1892, participated in the events dedicated to the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America.

An art exhibition of industry and commerce was organized on this occasion. Vasile Pamfil bought the bread from there, which he then donated to School no. 6, Galati, where there was a kind of history museum.
From School no. 6, the precious bread arrived in 1939 at the newly established “Casa Cuza Voda” Museum.

“From Paul Paşa’s thank-you letter, we find out that the bread was kept in a box of glass walls. On this cassette, we also find an original label, written by Paul Paşa himself,” tells the History Museum director in Galati Cristian Căldăraru.

Here, it was exhibited until the early 1970s, when the Communists decided that the exhibit did not fit too much with the proletariat’s symbols and then banned it. The box stood at the museum bridge until 2009 when, at a routine inventory, it was “rediscovered”!

Since then, the special box in which it has been stored has been exhibited in important events. In 2010, representatives of the Faculty of Food Science and Engineering came and took bread samples to reveal the secret of its longevity.

“We analyzed this bread and found that it had no traces of mould, so of microbial infection. The large porosity and high volume, and water evaporation are possible, so the bread has resisted to this day. So over 120 years,” says Romulus Burlacu of the Faculty of Food Science and Engineering.

These specialists conclude that the yeast and flour used to make this bread were of excellent quality and that today there are no such products anymore.

Galați is the capital city of Galați County, in the historical region of Moldavia, eastern Romania. Galați is a port town on the Danube River.

In 2011, the Romanian census recorded 249,432 residents, making it the 8th most populous city in Romania. Galați is an economic centre based around the port of Galați and the naval shipyard.