Creature Comforts: Ramp-Wrapped Towers Help Flatland Goats Feel More at Home
Along flat stretches of countryside from Argentina and South Africa to the United Kingdom, strange spires can be spotted at a great distance, but what really stands out up close is the goats that occupy them.
Goat towers date back over a century, but many more recent ones trace their inspiration back to one in particular: Torre das Cabras (Tower of the Goats), a winding turret built in Portugal during the late 1800s. This particular tower features a jagged stone facade wrapped in a wooden ramp and topped with a round peaked roof. While not quite as aesthetically lofty as a faux Roman temple, Egyptian pyramid, or Gothic abbey, it was in many ways a product of its era, at home in a period filled with architectural follies designed to liven up landscapes
Situated on a broad winery estate, the goat tower is one of various “artistic daydreams with no functional explanation,” according to 13th-generation member of the family that owns the land. It was built by his ancestors, who believed that “the goats did not belong to the plains [and thus] built the goat tower, so they could have a mountain.”
