Model for small bread Saint Nicholas, end of the 19th century 

Published: 07.12.2021

In the ethnological collection of the Kamnik Museum we keep a model for a small bread with the motif of Saint Nicholas from Kamnik, who came from Sadnikar’s collection. As Josip N. Sadnikar wrote, on the day of St. Barbara (December 4) in Kamnik annual seed. There was such a widespread tradition among the people that St. Nicholas to buy in Kamnik on the seeds of St. Barbara.

In Slovenia, the baking of small bread is still preserved in Škofja Loka and its surroundings.

Small bread was made first in monasteries and then in workshops, which were held in Kamnik, Škofja Loka, Ljubljana and Novo mesto. From here, the pastry tradition spread among the secular people. The small bread was designed in two ways: using a wooden carved model with a motif or freehand.

As Rajko Ložar wrote in the article Small bread in Škofja Loka and its surroundings, small bread is a beautiful, Gorenjska-Škofja Loka term for a type of pastry made from flour, honey, pepper and similar spices. And not only that, it was also an expression for other types of pastries that were on the table of a simple and bourgeois man on church holidays.