But let's start at the beginning and this goes back to the middle ages. The history of this bread is associated with two villages near Krakow - Prądnik Biały and Prądnik Czerwony. A river ran through them, powering the water mills which ground the flour then used by the local bakers to make bread. It was so good that it landed on bishops’ tables and at the royal Wawel. The name of 'Chleb Prądnikki' appears for the first time in a document from 1421. The bishop of Kraków, Albert, gave his cook Skowronek some land in Prądnik, obliging him to deliver rye bread to the bishop's table. According to legend, the mayor of Kraków brought the king to Wawel the first loaf of bread from Prądnik, baked after the harvest. This custom was continued even when the capital was moved to Warsaw. On the occasion of Saint John's Day, the king's bread was taken to Warsaw. It was not a delicacy only of dignitaries. King Jan Olbracht issued a permit to Prądnik bakers to sell pastries at the Krakow market once a week. During the Polish People's Republic, the tradition of baking this bread almost died out. Restoring it in the 1980s, was a Krakow baker, passionate of bread - Antoni Madej. Based on old documents and conversations with the old inhabitants of Prądnik, he recreated the bread recipe. Prądnik bread is a dark rye leaven bread. What also distinguishes it is its size. In the smaller version, it weighs about 4.5 kilograms and is up to 65 centimetres long and 35 centimetres wide with a height of up to 15 centimetres. It always has a 5-millimetre thick brown or dark brown uniform crust, covered with a layer of rye bran. Since 2011, the Prądnicki bread has been certified by the EU. It can only be baked within the administrative boundaries of Krakow.