The imposing Renaissance sanctuary of Mongiovino, in addition to its precious artistic treasures, hides a seventeenth-century oven. The sanctuary is in fact surrounded by a series of pertinent buildings, in one of which the community oven is inserted, whose presence is a real surprise. It was in use until the 1960s as a place for baking bread and Easter cakes for all the inhabitants of the district.

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The ancient community ovens, once present in all Umbrian villages, with different characteristics depending on the place, are the witnesses of a cooking technique but also of self-management of the local community. In the village oven, families took turns baking bread, sweets, roasts or other, depending on the occasion, involving different families who came together to bake together.

In Umbria, the tradition of the collective oven has survived for many years especially in the small villages. Almost completely disappeared, the ones that remain are today small chests that preserve stories of ancient but precious moments of sociality, of exchange between people, to share time, resources and tools, to be together and regain possession of ancient knowledge.