Did My Ancestors Have to Deal with Pigeons?

In Krakow, many of the window sills where lined with wire spikes.  A mechanism to prevent pigeons from landing.  It worked very well.

As descendants of the Rock Dove, an attraction to tall buildings and the nooks and crannies of window wells probably reflects an inherent preference for cliffs or buildings as a surrogate.  Pigeons make their appearance in many large cities.  Toronto has them and certainly they were present in Krakow.  I had wondered if the arrival of these birds is a recent phenomenon or whether they appear throughout history. 

On a tour of Krakow, our guide recited for us the legions of the pigeons of Krakow.  In that story a Prince of Krakow wanted to unit Poland into a single country.  In order to do so he needed to raise a large sum of money and get approval from the Pope.  Unable to raise the money the Prince consulted with a witch who granted him the wish on the condition that all his knights be converted into pigeons until his successful return from Rome.  He accepted the offer and the next day the Prince, his knights and the witch met in the Main Square of Krakow.  The witch cast her spell and the knights turned into pigeons.  These pigeon-knights then flew up and perched on the roof of St. Mary’s Church.  As they settled there small pieces of stone and gravel were dislodged and dropped to the ground.  As they landed on the ground they turned into gold coins.  The prince had his money, but sadly he spent it all before he was able to reach Rome and thus he returned home penniless and without the Pope’s support. Thus the knights remained as pigeons.  

Poland remained divided until King Casimir the Great united the country in 1333.  One might therefore conclude pigeons have been living in cities since before that date.  It is said that people all over the world have been raising pigeons for 10,000 years and that the city pigeons are mix of wild and domesticated pigeons; not knights.  Hence their history in cities could go back much further than the 1300’s.

Just one more obscure connection to the past.