I couldn’t believe it when I saw a pigeon castle in the yard of a home for sale in Rhode Island, USA. I thought that medieval pigeon castles were only found in France. So, I had to go to my archives to revisit their story.
I was fascinated, and people called them mini castles, playhouses, etc., so I did some research & found out what they really were. Actually, they’re called Pigeonniers.
It all started with this one that was Photoshopped and made the rounds of the internet and Pinterest. I was equally smitten by it. Some said it was a studio, a gardener’s cottage, and even a fairy house.
In the Middle Ages, meat was a luxury and served only on rare occasions. For nobility & royalty, a pigeonnier was extra status and power. Having one was a way to indicate to neighbors that you were feasting on pigeons every day.
Pigeonniers, or “dovecotes” in English, are intended to house pigeons or sometimes doves (Actually, doves are just white pigeons). The birds were especially popular in the Middle Ages for their meat, eggs and fertilizer (poop).
The production of “columbine,” or pigeon feces, was highly sought after as a fertilizer for vineyards, vegetable gardens, orchards and various crops.
And as we neared the dawn of the 20th cent., Parisians alone were consuming some 2,000,000 pigeons a year!
After that, pigeon breeding in France went on the decline as European diets changed and the meat industry evolved.
So what’s inside these grand pigeonniers? One large open space with walls divided into pigeon holes, or boulins, which can lodge a pair of pigeons. Here a pigeon farmer stands on a ladder, which rotates around the central beam, allowing the breeder to collect eggs from each hole.
The earliest ones were crafted from rock, brick, pottery or even just jars lying sideways.
Many of them even had a bath.
This old pigeonnier used to be inhabited on the 1st 2 floors by humans, while the 3rd floor was reserved for pigeons. (It’s since been turned into a B&B.)
You can find renovated bed and breakfasts by searching with the keywords “pigeonnier” and “dovecote” on Airbnb.
https://www.messynessychic.com/
