In 1955, a young student from the Geneva School of Architecture, Manuel Baud-Bovy, visited Tinos for the first time, staying in a small cottage on the beach of Kiona. Exploring the island, Manuel came across some unusual buildings that he had never heard of before.

With surprise and excitement, on each of his excursions, he discovered solitary dovecotes on the beaches, others leaning against the slopes, and others towering on high places, each surpassing the previous one in beauty and pride. Thanks to his father, Samuel, an ethnomusicologist, Manuel had developed an interest in studying folk culture. After all, his famous grandfather, Daniel, had published studies and books on traditional Swiss architecture...

Deeply fascinated, Manuel Baud-Bovy thought to compile a systematic catalog of the dovecotes. He walked all over the island and slept sometimes in a village, and other times under the stars or in a threshing floor, chapel, or abandoned dovecote. He discovered around eight hundred, which he recorded in four large albums with detailed drawings, theories, and thoughts, submitted to the Geneva School of Architecture for his doctoral thesis.

After more than 60 years, some of this rare material has become a book, enriched with introductory texts and many documentary photographs capturing the dovecotes as they stood in 1955, thus highlighting the need to protect our cultural heritage and urging us to follow the paths of the island...