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The Antico Forno Santa Caterina, in Altamura, Italy, has a wood-fired oven lit since 1306, almost 700 years. The bakery became a worldwide sensation when two childhood friends, aged 87 and 89, started posting fun videos baking Pane di Altamura by hand, and now has daily lines.
In southern Italy, a bakery has become a global phenomenon thanks to a rare combination: a wood-fired oven burning since the Middle Ages and two faces full of charisma. The Antico Forno Santa Caterina, in Altamura, in the Puglia region, has been lighting the same oven since 1306, and it was there that two childhood friends went viral on the internet with fun videos making bread. The story was reported by the newspaper La Nación.
A warning not to confuse the accounts: the more than 600 years belong to the oven, not them. The two friends are 87 and 89 years old, ages that impress, but the true ancient heritage here is the wood-fired oven from 1306. Together, millennial tradition and viral charm have transformed a small-town bakery into a destination that gathers daily lines of people from all over the world.
The wood-fired oven lit since 1306
The silent star of this story is the oven. The Antico Forno Santa Caterina, in Altamura, operates with a wood-fired oven in use since 1306, making it one of the oldest in the world still in use.
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It’s almost seven centuries of baking bread in the same place, surviving wars, kings, and revolutions without ever going out.
This type of wood-fired oven is not a decorative detail, it is the heart of the flavor. The combustion of wood and the stone walls accumulate and distribute heat in a way that no electric oven can replicate, giving the crust and crumb of the bread a unique character.
That’s why the bakery preserves the old method instead of modernizing.
Keeping a wood-fired oven alive for 700 years is, in itself, a heritage achievement.
Instead of becoming a museum piece, the equipment continues to produce real food every day, in a rare bridge between the Middle Ages and the line that forms today on the sidewalk. The bakery of Altamura literally holds historical fire.
The Pane di Altamura, the first DOP bread in Europe
What comes out of this oven has a reputation for royalty. The Pane di Altamura is made with re-milled durum wheat semolina from the Puglia region itself, and is considered by many to be the king of Italian sourdough breads. It is not just any bread: it is perhaps the most famous in Italy.
The recognition came heavily. In 2003, the Pane di Altamura became the first bread in Europe to receive the Protected Designation of Origin, the DOP seal, which guarantees origin and method.
By rule, it can only be called that if it is produced in Altamura, with the traditional ingredients and process of the region.
This seal transforms the bread into cultural heritage. When a bakery like Santa Caterina bakes the Pane di Altamura in the wood-fired oven from 1306, it is not just selling food, it is keeping alive a tradition protected by law. It is the marriage between a certified recipe and an oven that has been making it for centuries.
The ‘Instagram grandmas’ who went viral
The turn of fame, however, is much more recent and has a comedic touch.
The two childhood friends at the helm, Teresa Calia, 87, and Graziella Incampo, 89, became known as the Instagram grandmas, the internet grannies, by starring in fun videos making the bread. The duo’s charisma won followers worldwide.
The beginning was almost a joke. According to La Nación, the videos were born as a kind of joke, an idea of a great-nephew, Barattini, who recruited his great-aunt and her friend to promote the bakery’s reopening in 2023. What was supposed to be a simple promotion ended up going viral and reviving the business.
The tone is important: the charm here is joy, not suffering. The two appear having fun, joking, and showing their craft with good humor, and it was this lightness that conquered the internet.
The viral fame of the grandmas is a story of charm and tradition, not hardship, and it is precisely for this reason that it enchants.
Daily lines for the grandmothers’ bread
The effect of going viral appeared on the sidewalk. Every day a line forms to buy what Teresa and Graziella bake, with people coming from afar not to miss a slice of the coveted Pane di Altamura.
The bakery, which was at risk of falling into oblivion, has become a must-stop destination again.
The internet did what no advertisement could. By putting two charismatic figures and a historic wood-fired oven in the spotlight, the videos turned a local Italian bakery into a true tourist destination.
Those who visit Altamura stop by, and many come just because of what they saw on their phone screens.
This is the kind of line that tells a story. It’s not just about fresh bread; it’s about experiencing a piece of tradition that has survived seven centuries and gained new life through social media.
The combination of Pane di Altamura, an ancient oven, and viral fame has turned into a tourist magnet for the small town.
Why the world fell in love with a 700-year-old oven
The case explains a larger phenomenon. In a world of industrialized food, authenticity is worth gold, and few things are more authentic than a 1306 wood-fired oven making a legally certified bread.
The internet, which usually rewards the new, has surrendered precisely to the old and the true.
Charm was the final push. Tradition alone doesn’t always go viral, but tradition with good humor and captivating faces does.
The grandmothers of Altamura proved that a century-old bakery can win over the young social media audience when the story is told with lightness and truth, without losing its essence.
In Brazil, the lesson fits well. We have bakeries and artisanal crafts full of history that could shine in the same way, just by uniting them with the language of social media.
The wood-fired oven of Altamura shows that valuing the traditional is not looking back; it’s finding a new way for it to survive.
And you, would you face the line for this bread?
The story of the Antico Forno Santa Caterina proves that a 1306 wood-fired oven and a protected bread like Pane di Altamura can become a worldwide craze when given the right push.
All it took were two charismatic friends and some fun videos to turn the bakery into a phenomenon with daily lines in Italy.
And you, would you face a line to taste bread made in a nearly 700-year-old wood-fired oven? Tell us in the comments which Brazilian gastronomic tradition you think deserves the same love and fame worldwide.
