Devecots in Germany and Europe

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Wolfram Kleiss (†)
• Subject Area: Architecture, Building and Construction History, Construction Research, Sustainable Building Technology
• Term: from 2016 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 317601382

The manuscript is a continuation of the book "Taubenhäuser In Deutschland und Europa", published in 2006 (at that time funded by the DFG). It contains new examples of dovecots, especially from Germany but also from other European countries and Iran.Some new examples date back to the Middle Ages, for instance a depiction from 1476 of a pigeonry in Augsburg. Usually monasteries and castles had and have pigeon lofts in the access yard, which can be seen in an architectural model of the monastery Sudenburg, situated south of Magdeburg, around 1600. Since the century farmsteads gained more and more Importance for dove-keeping besides monasteries and castles, dovecots became an architectural feature In the middle of the farmstead. In the 20th century some dovecots were removed due to the requirements of mechanised agnculture. Recently dovecots are being repaired or rebuild in many places. The dovecot or pigeon tower decorates properties, this can be seen in examples from Bavaria, but usually these buildings are not used for pigeon-keeping anymore.The dovecots and pigeon towers differ in size and design. There are pigeon towers with stonewalled substructures and wooden pigeon houses but also tiny pigeonries made of wood. There are examples of dovecots outside of Germany; the authors have collected examples from France, England, Italy, Greece as well as Egypt, Turkey and Iran.Especially the Iranian pigeon towers shall be highlighted in this abstract. Due to a change in agricultural production methods these functional buildings are no longer used to produce pigeon droppings as fertiliser. Therefore there is no necessity to preserve the clay build pigeon towers. They dilapidate and collapse. The documentation in the publication intends to contribute to the preservation of these pigeon towers as distinctive and important part of the Iranian architectural history.

• DFG Programme: Publication Grants