columbarium

1. (historical) A large, sometimes architecturally impressive building for housing a large colony of pigeons or doves, particularly those of ancien regime France.Examples: "Their sides present the well-known appearance of the Roman columbaria (dove-cotes), but with the important difference, that they are adapted to contain coffins instead of urns, the holes being about 2 feet square and 6 feet deep."; "Doves were culticly protected; great towers were built for them in which they could nest; they were called columbaria (columba is the Latin word for dove)."; "Fish ponds were stocked with netted fish during the summer as a source of protein and dove cotes, or as the Romans called them, 'columbariums', were another."Synonyms: dovecotehistorical