The dovecotes of Tinos — peristereones in Greek — are one of the island's most distinctive features: approximately a thousand decorative tower structures scattered across the hillsides, built by Venetian settlers and maintained by the islanders for centuries. They are unlike dovecotes anywhere else in the world, each one elaborately decorated with geometric patterns carved in marble or schist, with intricate triangular and circular cut-outs in the upper sections that let pigeons in and out.
Pigeons were kept for their meat and eggs, but also for their droppings, which were used as fertilizer. The elaborate decoration suggests they were also status symbols — the more ornate your dovecote, the more prosperous your family. Walking the back roads of Tinos you encounter them constantly, sometimes in pairs or clusters, their decorative facades rising above the terraced fields.
The highest concentration of well-preserved dovecotes is in the interior of the island, around the villages of Tarambados, Ktikados, and Smardakito, all accessible from Tinos town.