Rheinhessen, Germany's largest wine region, has a peculiar architectural legacy gaining notice as these buildings are turned into restaurants, cafes, and wine-tasting businesses. These are "cow chapels." Step into one, and you have the feeling of being in a church from hundreds of years ago. The large rooms and vaulted ceilings seem almost holy. But these repurposed buildings were once stables for cows. Why would anyone ever build a barn with vaulted ceilings?
That's an interesting story that goes back to the French Revolution, when one thing led to another and some dairy farmers ended up with land that held empty churches. It would be wasteful to tear down a church just to build a barn, so the cattle were fed and sheltered in these churches. That doesn't mean the current cow chapels were churches turned into stables. Those few early churches had certain architectural benefits that inspired other farmers to build their barns using the design of churches, and that's how cow chapels were born. The full story of these unique barns can be read at Atlas Obscura.
(Image credit: Gabriele Röhle)