Vathia, the village of towers

What it is

Vathia is a village of tower houses at the top of a hill in southern Mani, between Gerolimenas and Cape Tainaron. It is almost abandoned, and that is what makes it unique: a cluster of 18th- and 19th-century stone towers standing out against the sea and the mountain, hardly changed. It is the clearest example of the vernacular architecture of southern Mani, and one of the essential stops on the inner Mani loop. You see it free and in an hour.

Why there are so many towers

The towers were not decoration: they were home and fortress at once, in a land where clans lived at war. The English traveller William Martin Leake passed through Vathia on 13 April 1805, on his way to the cape, and a band of armed men blocked his way. His guides, also Maniots, negotiated, and told him that the village had been divided into two opposing sides for forty years, with a hundred dead.

Between 1750 and 1900, Vathia and its hamlets were controlled by eight clans and their allies. The four largest, Karabatiani, Michalakiani, Kaledoniani and Koutrigari, lived in the village; the other four, in the surrounding hamlets. The war that began in 1764 forged those clans, which dominated the area until the village was almost wholly abandoned after the Second World War.

The village already appears in 1571, on a Venetian diplomatic mission, as casale di Vathia; in 1618 it had 20 households and in 1700, according to the Venetian Grimani census, 212 inhabitants in 54 families.

How to visit, step by step

1. The roadside viewpoint. Before going in, stop on the road to see the whole village on its hill. It is the classic photo.

2. The lanes. Walk up the streets between the towers. The ground is loose stone and sloping.

3. The surroundings. On the hills around Vathia there are more groups of houses, towers and abandoned chapels, the perichora, “surroundings”. To the north-east rises the Sangias range.

Respect what is closed. Many towers are empty or in ruins. Do not go in where there is no access or climb the walls: stones may fall.

When to go

All year. In spring wild flowers cover the hills and it is the prettiest season. In summer there is no shade: go first thing or at the end of the afternoon, when low light tints the stone. At midday in August the visit is tough.

Getting there and parking

Vathia is on the road linking Areopoli with Cape Tainaron along the west coast, past Gerolimenas. The nearest villages are Kyparissos, Alika and Gerolimenas to the north-west, and Lagia to the north-east. Leave the car at the entrance, where it will not obstruct: the road is narrow. The bus does not come here. Fill up beforehand at the Gerolimenas petrol station, the last on the west side.

With children

You can, but carefully: slopes, loose stone and ruins. Hold them by the hand in the lanes and do not let them go into the towers. Not with a pushchair.

Sleeping and combining

To sleep in a tower, the Kyrimai Hotel, in the old port of Gerolimenas, is less than half an hour from Vathia and Tainaron, and has a restaurant with Mani recipes. Further south, the Tainaron Blue Retreat is four rooms in a stone tower. From Vathia continue to Cape Tainaron and its lighthouse.