Pigeonnier et le Château de Buzet, France

Pigeonnier et le Château de Buzet, France



In France, it was called a colombier or fuie from the 13th century onwards and pigeonnier until the 19th century.

The dovecote interior, the space granted to the pigeons, is divided into a number of boulins (pigeon holes). Each boulin is the lodging of a pair of pigeons.
These boulins can be in rock, brick or cob (adobe) and installed at the time of the construction of the dovecote or be in pottery (jars lying sideways, flat tiles, etc.), in braided wicker in the form of a basket or of a nest.
It is the number of boulins that indicates the capacity of the dovecote. The one at the chateau d'Aulnay with its 2,000 boulins and the one at Port-d'Envaux with its 2,400 boulins of baked earth are among the largest ones in France.

In the Middle Ages, particularly in France, the possession of a colombier à pied (dovecote on the ground accessible by foot), constructed separately from the corps de logis of the manor-house (having boulins from the top down), was a privilege of the seigneurial lord.
He was granted permission by his overlord to build a dovecote or two on his estate lands. For the other constructions, the dovecote rights (droit de colombier) varied according to the provinces.
They had to be in proportion to the importance of the property, placed in a floor above a henhouse, a kennel, a bread oven, even a wine cellar.
Generally the aviaries were integrated into a stable, a barn or a shed, and were permitted to use no more than 2.5 hectares of arable land.
Although they produced an excellent fertilizer (known as colombine), the lord's pigeons were often seen as a nuisance by the nearby peasant farmers, in particular at the time of sowing of new crops.

In numerous regions (in France) where the right to possess a dovecote was reserved solely for the nobility (Brittany, Normandy, etc.), the complaint rolls very frequently recorded formal requests for the suppression of this privilege and a law for its abolition, which was finally ratified on 4 August 1789 in France.

Source: Wikipedia