PALLOZA HOUSE

Structure

A circular or oval, of ten to twenty meters in diameter, with

stone walls and a conical roof composed of stalks of rye.

Intended in part to house and in part to block for the cattle,

its structure was ideal to withstand the harsh winters.

Origin

Is of pre-Roman origin, presumably Celtic. The pallozas have

similarities with the round houses of the Iron Age in Great

Britain or the buildings of the Castro culture. As an anecdotal

note worth mentioning that the village of Asterix, the Gaul, is

composed, in part, by pallozas.

Castro of Chano municipality of Peranzanes Province of León.

Detail of one of the buildings. Inside can see the home.

The Palloza name is actually a corruption of the Galician

word "pallaza", first included in the late 19th century by

ethnographers such as German Fritz Krüger, referring to the

material that was used to make the roof of the building. The

traditional name of these buildings is in fact casa de teito or

casa de teitu.

Today

Municipal palloza in Balboa León. It is used as bar and

restaurant.

They were used until the second half of the 20th century,

when improved communications have facilitated the arrival

of modern building materials to the area. Today these are in

Galicia, comarca of Os Ancares, and they remain in several

areas of the municipality of Candín and western Asturias.

The remarkable set of pallozas in the Bierzan town of Campo

del Agua was largely destroyed by a large fire in the mid

1980's. The most famous of them may be that of Piornedo,

which since the 70's has been an ethnographic museum.

There has long been building of new pallozas used mainly

as holiday homes, even in remote areas, where they did not

traditionally exist.