Vathia

Vathia stands on a ridge above the sea in the driest, harshest part of the Mani, and its silhouette of some thirty tower houses packed together is the image most people carry of the peninsula. The towers, three and four storeys of unmortared stone with tiny windows, were built as fortified family homes; the higher your tower, the stronger your clan, and rivalries between families in these villages were legendary and long. Most of Vathia was abandoned during the twentieth century as the Mani emptied, and an attempt in the 1980s to convert it into a state-run hotel village was left unfinished. Today a handful of towers are restored and inhabited seasonally while the rest stand open to the sky, with prickly pear growing through the floors.

History

Vatheia is first mentioned in 1571 by a Venetian diplomatic mission as casale di Vathia; an unofficial census in 1618 recorded it with 20 hearths, and the Venetian Grimani census of 1700 counted 212 people in 54 families. On 13 April 1805 the traveller William Martin Leake passed through on his way to Cape Matapan, and his Maniot guides told him the village had been split into two feuding parties for the past 40 years (Wikipedia, Vatheia).

The main sights

• The tower skyline - some thirty stone towers packed on a ridge.
• The roofless interiors - open shells with staircases and fireplaces visible.
• The stone lanes - narrow passages between the tower bases.
• The sea view - the Mani coast and the Messenian Gulf below.

When to go

Spring and autumn for comfortable walking; the village has no shade at all. Late afternoon light on the stone is the reason photographers come. Winter storms make the Mani coast dramatic.

Things to know

Vathia is a ruin: floors are missing, walls are unstable and entering the towers is genuinely risky. There are no facilities, no ticket and no interpretation. The visit is short, half an hour to an hour, unless you walk the surrounding paths.

Nearby

Cape Tainaron lies at the end of the road south; Gerolimenas and Areopoli are north along the coast.