Pisa de la Castaña Festival (Parada de Sil)

A centuries-old process once common to inland areas where chestnut trees abound, such as in the town of Parada de Sil, Pisa de la Castaña (literally “chestnut treading”) is a practice of simpler times.

The festival treats visitors to a re-enactment of traditional chestnut processing custom once widespread in many villages of inland Galicia, to learn how chestnuts were prepared for storage and later consumption throughout the winter.

Once gathered, fresh chestnuts were brought to a sequeiro, a building designed exclusively for this purpose. These structures had floors of wooden planks arranged one centimetre apart, where the chestnuts were heaped. The chestnuts were then left to dry for several days with a fire underneath the planks. The nuts were regularly stirred with a rodo (wooden tool). Once properly dried, they were poured into a canvas bag and beaten against a wooden log called a pisón. They were then cleaned and peeled using a wooden tool called a criba.

At the end of the re-enactment, attendees gather at a table for a traditional meal featuring chestnuts in most of the dishes.

Date: second to last Saturday of November