Guinness me!

Once part of the Muslim system of surveillance of the strait, El Palomar de La Breña is a rural hotel for 7770 pigeons or doves located on an 18th century hacienda in San Ambrosio (Barbate), south of Vejer de la Frontera.
The 400m² complex of single and double occupancy, terracotta rooms is listed apparently in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest dovecote in the world.
It is divided into parallel alleys separated by high, meter thick walls to provide the birds 'thermal comfort'. The trough the center of the patio provides communal bathing and drinking , offered the birds a place where they could drink sheltered from the wind and predators. Doves and pigeons inhabit the same nest for many years and thus are a reliable source of raw material.
Unlike Northern dovecotes where the guests formed part of the winter food chain, the footed and the feathered coexisted symbiotically. Potassium Nitrate from pigeon poo is a basic raw material for gunpowder. The guano was also very suitable for the cultivation of hemp and tobacco. At a time when the Americas trade was demanding guns, sails and ropes in large quantity, this guano plant was raking it in - in all ways. 10 to 15 tons of guano per anum, requiring an approximate area of ​​2,500 hectares of feed.
They also used them as messengers and, yes, rumour has it that some ended up in the pot.Läs mer