Dovecote
A dovecote is used for breeding and keeping domestic pigeons and offers them protection from the elements and natural enemies. According to the construction method, dovecotes are also referred to as built-in loft , ground loft , garden loft or open loft . Special forms of free-standing dovecotes are pigeon towers and pigeon houses . Pigeon boxes and pigeon caves were also used to house pigeons. However, due to inadequate protection and poor hygienic conditions, they are rarely used.
In some cities in Central Europe, attempts are also being made to use pigeon lofts to reduce the population of city pigeons ; there is no evidence of the success of the measure in these cities through exact surveys (before - after). The different uses of the domestic pigeon as an exhibition pigeon , carrier pigeon (or flying pigeon ), or meat pigeon place different conditions on the division and setup of the loft.
Dovecotes in Germany
Since the acquisition of a pigeon loft often exceeds the financial possibilities of a hobby pigeon fancier, several breeders often come together and establish a loft community, economically comparable to a riding stable, whereby several people share a pigeon house and house their pigeons there.
Until a few decades ago, pigeons were kept free-flying in rural areas in Germany, but also among miners in their colonies in the Ruhr area.
In the meantime, domestic pigeons are almost exclusively kept for breeding or for the racing pigeon sport in Germany , while huge populations of feral domestic pigeons have settled in the cities. The use as a meat supplier fell into oblivion; the use as a fertilizer supplier was made more difficult by regulations: the droppings of city pigeons are considered residual waste .
Example Basel: Dovecotes as a measure of population control
The pigeon plagues in the cities also brought dovecotes into conversation. The city of Basel, for example, reduced its pigeon population of around 20,000 animals by killing several thousand animals and through an awareness campaign against feeding pigeons by half. As a gesture towards animal welfare, a few small pigeon houses were built at the same time, in which 500 animals breed and spend the night in a controlled manner. An excessive increase in this small new population is constantly prevented by partially exchanging the eggs for fake eggs. The success of the measure in Basel was and is almost exclusively caused by the drastically reduced food supply in the city. The number of pigeon populations in a city is essentially dependent on the respective breeding place and the respective feed. Breeding sites that become free when pigeons move into lofts are quickly reoccupied by young pigeons without prior breeding opportunities. In the pigeon houses, with the partial exchange of eggs for plastic eggs, the population of pigeon house pigeons is controlled, but not the free-living street pigeon population.
History and distribution of the dovecotes
Already in ancient Egyptian times , the domesticated form of the rock pigeon was kept in specially built dovecotes. Pigeon breeding was also known to the Assyrians , Phoenicians, and ancient Greece . The keeping of the pigeons was spread by the Romans in Central Europe and North Africa. The Roman columbarium is the first traditional form of a dovecote. Dovecotes were used primarily for the production of valuable fertilizer, which was also exported and only afterwards for food production and the breeding of racing pigeons .
In the European Middle Ages, dovecotes were large free-standing buildings on the grounds of monasteries or mansions; often they also stood in the middle of the fields. Their operation was lucrative, but required the approval of the king. Pigeon breeding was a fun affair for the nobility. Dovecotes were sometimes integrated into the park design as pavilions , as in the Villa Barbaro in Veneto . This class privilege was not abolished until the French Revolution , and pigeons became the only alternative to dried meat for the population, especially in winter.
British Islands
In the Middle Ages only landlords could keep the birds, so the remaining medieval dovecotes are connected to mansions ( Parke's Castle ), former monasteries and rectories. When the legal situation relaxed from around 1600, many farmers also owned dovecotes.
Many dovecotes (Engl. Dovecotes ) have survived the centuries because they are regarded as the building of particular historical or architectural interest. The oldest surviving dovecote in Rochester Castle is recorded in 1126. From 1326 the oldest free-standing dovecote is documented in the English town of Garway in the county of Herefordshire . Probably the earliest surviving Scottish dovecote is dated 1576 on its door inscription. It stands at Mertoun House in St Boswells ( Scottish Borders region ).
On the British Isles in the 17th century over 26,000, sometimes elaborately designed dovecotes, mostly in monastery gardens and parks of aristocratic houses. Most of these dovecotes, which were eye-catching as high round towers, could accommodate 200 to 500 couples. The dovecote in the Oxfordshire village of Culham was the size of a small house and provided nesting boxes for 3,000 birds. From the end of the 18th century, pigeon keeping in Great Britain declined significantly, and smaller dovecotes were only set up on the roofs of existing buildings. Since the beginning of the 20th century, some of the preserved buildings have been cared for as monuments by the National Trust or the government organization English Heritage and are open to the public.
Spain
Especially in the extremely fertile but unsuitable for cattle breeding plains of the Tierra de Campos in the former kingdoms of León and Castile , many pigeon houses ( palomares ) or their ruins still bear witness to the importance of pigeon breeding in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries; some were probably used until the early 20th century. They were mostly built from rammed earth and are in open terrain, i. H. in the middle of the fields; their authorship is largely unclear - in most cases it was probably large farmers who dedicated themselves to this branch of livestock. They are rather rare in other areas of the Iberian Peninsula , but place names such as Palomares suggest their former presence. The layout of the surviving or accessible examples is mostly round, but there are also square buildings.
France
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In France, pigeon houses ( pigeonniers or colombiers ) were widespread across the country, although they were of course more common in wheat-growing areas than on the barren and stony soils, for example, in large parts of Brittany , Provence or the Cevennes . At the end of the 17th century it should have been 42,000. There is news from 1261 that the royal court devoured 400 pigeons a day, and the queen's court as many. From a height of about 400 m they hardly occur.
It is difficult to date most of the pigeon houses because they are functional buildings that are only slightly subject to changes in style and history (fashions); the designs are therefore often repeated. Most of the buildings still in existence are usually attributed to the 17th and 18th centuries, i.e. the pre-revolutionary era. While it is assumed that in the early and high Middle Ages everyone had the right to build and operate a dovecote, the first restrictions in favor of the feudal lords were found in 1312, which were more and more observed in the following years. It was not until 1789 that legal equality was restored through corresponding laws and decrees of the National Assembly .
There are pigeon houses in all sorts of places: Most of them belonged to a noble seat - which was often destroyed in the French Revolution; others have survived on feudal manors; Still others are in the middle of small towns and form a tower above gate entrances, etc. At the former priory churches of Civray in the Vienne department and at the Chapelle de Tresséroux near Les Lèches in the Dordogne department there are even dovecotes on the south side of the apse .
Egypt and Nubia
From the Nile Delta up the Nile to Nubia, grain and vegetables were already grown in ancient times on the annually flooded fields on the banks of the Nile . In addition to the natural fertilization with Nile mud , pigeon manure was used. The arrival of the Nile flood caused by rains in Ethiopia was reported by means of carrier pigeons. From the time of Roman rule , a few dovecotes have been preserved in Lower Egypt. Excavations that were made in Karanis, southwest of Cairo in the 1920s and 1930s , show five mostly preserved dovecotes in the middle of the urban settlement. The dovecotes were built from unfired clay bricks, they are mostly square in plan, some are tower-high and several meters wide. Since most of these adobe buildings were erected on the roofs of the houses and so inevitably collapsed first, it is assumed that the number was once much higher. The walls of the free-standing buildings were up to 1.5 meters thick at the base; three of the towers that were preserved could only be reached inside via a ladder to the single door three meters higher. The size of the dovecotes indicates the pigeon dung as a commodity. In the excavation layer of the 4th and 5th centuries, the dovecotes were generally found on the roofs of houses. In Roman times, dovecotes were also built on farms outside the cities, they were part of these buildings or stood free, often near vineyards.
In papyrus rolls of the 2nd century BC The methods of pigeon breeding are described and the size of pigeon lofts is given. With the clay pipes inserted into the walls as nesting places, it is the same rectangular, box-shaped construction that can still be found on the lower reaches of the Nile today. There are extremely ornate dovecotes, the roof shape of which is structured by rows of inwardly rising turrets (Italian: Cupola ). In another construction method, which can be seen in villages in Egypt and further south, in the Nubian part of Sudan , the clay pipes are built into circular towers made of adobe bricks with the opening facing inwards. A few open tubes in the wall serve as entry openings or holes are made from bricks arranged in a triangle. The flat roof finish consists of a layer of knots with clay. Where pigeons are primarily kept as a producer of fertilizer, there are one or two rows of branches on the outside of these towers in the upper part, which protrude from the wall as seating. The pigeon dung collects on another row below, lined with mats. The dovecotes that contribute to the landscape are part of the national folk culture in Egypt.
A similar type of construction with conical towers and a round mud-brick roof can be found throughout North Africa; Pigeon rearing on a local scale is recommended as an inexpensive meat production for the rural population.
Large pigeon towers in the center of northern Sudanese villages, which were previously operated collectively, are often no longer maintained. Instead, smaller towers, two to three meters high, belonging to individual families, are widespread on the surrounding walls of the homesteads. Pigeon meat has a high value for Muslims in general, it is tahir ("pure"). In the Islamic north of Sudan, dovecotes are also built because of the cultural importance of birds. Doves are associated with women, fertility and purity, all of which define the concept of sharaf ("honor"). The most important part of the multi-day wedding ceremony is the dove dance performed by the bride in front of her future husband.
Cycladic island of Tinos
As on other Greek islands, pigeon breeding was probably introduced on the island of Tinos in Greco-Roman times and later abandoned. Dovecotes were only built again after the conquest by the Venetian Republic . As elsewhere in Europe, the right to breed pigeons and build pigeon lofts was restricted to nobles and the ruling class. On Tinos it was the Venetians. It was not until the Turkish era (1715-1821) that there was general right to breed pigeons. Only a few dovecotes were erected on roofs, most of them stood free on the edges of fields. From the 18th century, rectangular, two to three storey high buildings were erected to compete for the even more beautiful ornamental facade design in the upper area. They have been preserved as sights of the island and in their function. On the ground floor there is a place for devices, the nesting places are reached via a ladder and an opening in the floor. The stone walls, which were joined with little clay as mortar, are around 80 centimeters thick at the bottom, narrower at the top and end in small corner towers. The towers usually have space for 200, maximum 500 pigeons.
Middle East
The British historian Thomas Herbert stayed in Persian Isfahan , the capital of the Safavid dynasty , between 1629 and 1631 and reported on the use of pigeon droppings as a fertilizer. A little later, from 1666, the French traveler Jean Chardin lived in the city for several years, where he saw over 1000 pigeon towers in the area. At the beginning of the 18th century there are said to have been 3,000 towers, around 100 have been preserved in Isfahan Province. They are called in Farsi Borj-e-Kabutar ("pigeon castle ") or more generally Kabutar Khaneh ("pigeon house"). There are two basic types: truncated pyramids and round towers with flat roofs, although there are also towers tapering upwards in steps. The diameters can be over 15 meters, at 10 to 20 meters in height. The walls are made of adobe bricks and partially covered with lime plaster. With the seizure of power by Shah Abbas at the end of the 16th century, Isfahan reached an economic boom. Canals were derived from the Zayandeh Rud River , which led water first through pools in urban parks and then to the fields outside for irrigation. Large amounts of fertilizer were required for the less fertile soils in these fields. Pigeon droppings were also used as a stain in the leather industry and for the production of black powder . The sale of pigeon manure turned into a profitable business, building more pigeon lofts, despite the Shah imposing a tax on their property. Each pigeon loft held about 5000 pigeons, each of which produces around two and a half kilograms of manure per year.
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Another region with special pigeon nesting sites is Central Anatolia . In the bizarre rock formations (Turkish: peribacaları ) made of soft tuff in the landscape of Cappadocia , cavities could easily be formed, which have been inhabited by humans for centuries and which have also served as cattle shelters and pigeon shelters near settlements. Pigeons settled in higher rock holes, where they were safe and where pigeon droppings could be collected as fertilizer for growing vegetables and vines. Here, as in Isfahan, the importance of pigeon manure for watermelon cultivation is emphasized. In the porous volcanic rock, caves for pigeons were artificially created on rock walls and wall niches were carved inside as nesting places. The painted facades of these pigeon caves can be seen from a distance, some dating from the 18th century, most from the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century.
The Turkish town of Gesi is located 20 kilometers north of Kayseri in a lush green river valley. In the vicinity of the surrounding villages there are groups of around 1000 chimney-like stone towers with a sloping, partly stepped top. The basic plan can be square, rectangular or round. They form the above-ground part and the entrance to the below-ground pigeon room, which was hewn out of the tuff and measures about five meters in the plane and four meters in height. Hundreds of nesting places are sunk into the walls. A sloping tunnel, which is closed with a wooden door, serves as access to the room to collect the pigeon droppings. The two to six meter high stone towers provide protection from wild animals, storms and a snow-free entrance in winter. Pigeon breeding has declined sharply since the middle of the 20th century. The reasons for this are the introduction of artificial fertilizers in fields, modern chicken farms and the rural exodus of the population.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Entry on pigeon tower of Mertoun House in Canmore, the database of Historic Environment Scotland (English)
- ↑ Klara Spandl: Exploring the round houses of doves. In: British Archeology. No. 35, June 1998 ( memento of July 29, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ).
- ^ AO Cooke: Dovecotes of Old England, Wales and Scotland. PigeonCote.com, extensive website on the history of English dovecotes.
- ^ Elinor M. Husselman: The Dovecotes of Karanis. In: American Philological Association. Vol. 84, 1953, pp. 81-91 ( Memento of January 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ).
- ↑ cf. for example the portrait of the Egyptian President, Mubarak . Abdin Palace Museum, Cairo ( picture on Flickr ). The painting shows the president symbolically with elements of Egyptian culture, including dovecotes.
- ^ Alessandro Finzi: Integrated Backyard Systems. A Contribution to the Special Program for Food Security. Chapter 7: Backyard small species. Animal Production Department, University of Tuscia, Viterbo / FAO 2000.
- ^ Roberto Orazi: The Dovecotes of Tinos. In: Environmental Design. Rome 1988, pp. 52-63 (English, PDF: 12.0 MB).
- ↑ Isfahan Dovecotes. IranianTours.com.
- ↑ Eric Hansen: Castles of the Fields. In: Aramco World. March / April 2011, pp. 2-4.
- ↑ Sina Vodjani and Gabriele von Kröcher: Zarathustra. Membrane International, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-86562-739-1 , p. 228 f.
- ↑ Capadocia's Dovecotes. TurkishTumblers.com ( Memento of May 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive ).
- ↑ Vacit Imamoğlu et al. a .: A Fantasy in Central Anatolian Architectural Heritage: Dovecotes and Towers in Kayseri. In: METU JFA. Vol. 2, 2005 - PDF, 217 kB ( Memento from April 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ).
literature
- Wolfram Kleiss and Liselotte Soltani: Pigeon houses in Germany and Europe. Reimer Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-496-02791-1 .
- Wolfram Kleiss and Liselotte Soltani: Pigeon houses in Europe, Iran and Egypt. Reimer Verlag, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-496-01575-8 .
- Elisabeth Beazley: The pigeon towers of Isfahan. Iran 4, 1966, pp. 1-20.
- Jean and Peter Hansell: Doves and Dovecotes and A Dovecote Heritage. Millstream Press, 1988, ISBN 0-948975-11-3 .
