Nº 004
hórreo
A granary that stands on tiptoe.
A raised timber or stone granary of northwest Iberia, on pillars capped by flat stone discs that stop rodents, with slatted walls for ventilation.
The film, in words
This humble building was designed against one enemy: rats.
It's called a hórreo: a granary on stone legs, found across northwest Spain.
Each leg ends in a flat stone disc. A rat can climb the pillar, but not around the flat stone disc.
Slatted walls let the wind through, so the grain and the maize dry instead of rotting.
The oldest still standing date from the fifteenth century. The longest, in Carnota, runs thirty-five metres.
Its cousins: the espigueiro in Portugal, the staddle barn in England, the stabbur in Norway.
Hórreo. A granary that stands on tiptoe.
Cousins
- espigueiro Portugal
- staddle barn England
- stabbur Norway
Also a cousin in: pilotis