pegollu / piol.lu – stilt / pillar – soporte de horreo

[Is]

pegollu: Central Asturian, pronounced Pay-GO-yoo; West Asturian variant at piol.lu: pronounced Pee-oh-tsoo. Sometimes also written as pegoyu.

A noun to designate the stilt, column or pillar that elevates the Asturian granary (horru) above ground. A pegollu or piol.lu can be made of wood, limestone, sandstone or stacked slate. It rests on a pilpayu, a stone that separates it from the ground.

The pegollera is another name for the round millstone or muela that sits atop the pegollu and stops rodents from climbing into the granary.

By extension, it can be used to infer the supporting elements of another structure, as in the legs of a chair.

Usage examples:

La panera de Tia Lena na Nozaleda tenia 8 pegollos. [The large granary at Aunt Lena’s in the Nozaleda had 8 pillars.]
Un horru siempre tien que tener 4 pegollos. [A traditional square-shaped Asturian granary always has 4 legs.]
Nolo espetouse escontra’l piol.lu anueite de la que taba aparcando’l coche. [Nolo ran into the granary pillar last night while parking the car.]

Folk wisdom:

Xelu encima’l lloviu, nieve hasta’l pegollu. [If it freezes on wet ground there will be snow all the way up the pillar of the granary.]

Here is an example of the pegollu in a Turkish granary, very similar to the Asturian model. It is known as a direk in Turkish and this one is from a giant 12-legged ambar in Kizilcaema, Sinop: