Built from the thirteenth century and restored in the nineteenth century, Château de Marouatte stands in Grand-Brassac in the Dordogne department of France. Inside its large circular dovecote, tiers of small nesting holes line the walls beneath a timbered roof; such structures were common in mediaeval Europe on estates and near farms, where birds, usually pigeons, were kept for meat, eggs, and droppings used as fertiliser, and where ownership could also mark status since in some places only landowners were permitted to maintain one.