Vathia · Inner Mani, Lakonia · Greece

Vathia Tower 1894

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easy

10/10

best: morning, afternoon

mysterious, adventurous, contemplative

A local would say...

Blood feuds were settled from tower to tower — this village was a miniature war zone, and the architecture still proves it.

The most dramatic of the traditional Mani villages — a cluster of closely packed medieval tower houses perched on a rocky spur in one of the most remote parts of mainland Greece. The feuding families of the Mani built these towers for centuries, firing upon each other from their stone battlements, creating a skyline unlike anywhere else in Greece. The surrounding landscape of rock, sea and silence is overwhelming.