King's Bakery - Fortress of Louisbourg

The King's Bakery is hosted within The Fortress of Louisbourg. The original bakery was destroyed by a fire that also claimed the artillery storehouse in 1756, but the floors have been preserved intact in this reconstruction. Here visitors may buy a loaf of soldiers’ bread, baked daily in these ovens from a dough of 80% whole wheat and 20% rye flour.

That smell of baking bread is characteristic of the 18th century town. Most people got most of their nutrition from bread, and this colony without farms brought in 500 pounds of flour per colonist every year, mostly from Canada. Crop failures there threatened this supply in the 1740s, and shortages loomed on the eve of war.