The dovecotes of Tinos

Ιn 1955, a young student of the Geneva School of Architecture, Manuel Baud-Bovy, visited Tinos for the first time, staying in a cottage on the sandy beach of Kiona.

While exploring the island, Manuel came across some unusual buildings that he had never heard of before. With growing surprise and enthusiasm, in each of his excursions he discovered lonely dovecotes on sandy beaches, others nestling into the slopes and others dominating the heights, each surpassing the last in beauty and dignity.

Thanks to his father, Samuel, an ethnomusicologist, Manuel had developed an interest in the study of folk culture. Moreover, his famous grandfather, Daniel, had published studies and books on traditional Swiss architecture …

Manuel Baud-Bovy, deeply impressed, thought of compiling a systematic list of the dovecotes. He walked all over the island and sometimes slept in a village, sometimes under the stars or on a threshing floor, in a chapel, or even in an abandoned dovecote. He discovered about eight hundred of them, which he recorded in four large albums with detailed plans, theories and thoughts, which he submitted to the Geneva School of Architecture for his doctoral dissertation.

After 60 and more years, a selection of this rare and valuable material becomes a book, enriched with introductory texts and many photographic documents that capture the dovecotes as they were preserved in 1955. In this way, this work strongly highlights the need to protect our cultural heritage while encouraging us to tramp the paths of the island once more …