Pianencs are familiar with this story, which has become a legend local, but don't really try to talk about it outside the village... it's far too embarrassing! This is the story of Burro de Pia.
Burro de Pia
It's the story of a happy owner of a donkey, which we guess is of Catalan breed of course. Leaving his stable with his master to go to his work, the duo passed in front of the church, which displayed a superb dandelion at the top of its bell tower, a dandelion probably born from a seed brought by a mischievous wind or a greedy bird and which , finding itself there, grew and produced very beautiful flowers.
At each pass, the donkey saw this beautiful dandelion and began to bray with lust and it was necessary to use treasures of imagination to make him stop wanting to bite it and continue on his way.
One day, his owner had enough of these whims and decided to give him the dandelion. He went to get a rope, climbed to the top of the bell tower to pass it through a pulley and tied one end of the rope to the donkey's neck. Then he pulled with all his strength to make the animal climb up to the flower. Obviously the donkey began to bray in pain, but its cries were interpreted as joy by this very unintelligent pianenc.
The donkey was never able to eat his dandelion or anything else for that matter, and the whole village mourned his death. It is since that day that the donkey has been the symbol of Pia, in addition to being that of Catalonia.
