Greece - Vathia

Vathia - or Vatheia - is a traditional village in the southernmost tip of the Mani peninsula on the Peloponnese. The village was built from the mid the 16th century, but only in the 18th and 19th century real economic prosperity has come. At that time the village had about 300 inhabitants, who were mainly farmers and the olive harvest was their main occupation. At the beginning of the 20th century the inhabitants left the village due to poverty and at the end of the eighties of the last century there were hardly any people living there.

Nowadays Vathia - often called a ghost town - is almost completely uninhabited. It has about 90 typical tower houses with the typical architecture of the Mani; most of them are empty and partly dilapidated, but in the meantime some have been renovated.

The tower houses in Vathia are built like fortresses with two or three floors. The people, at one time, fiercely guarded their land and livelihoods, either from foreign invaders or rival families. The fortress-like houses provided the ideal opportunity to keep a lookout in the case of a potential invasion. The head of each household was considered to be a ‘mini warlord’, who had the interests of the family at the center of his concerns. The fierceness of the people, the rugged terrain and the strategic location of the tower houses helped keep Mani (and Vathia) free from invaders and it even maintained its independence from the Ottoman Empire..

Vathia is built on a hill top in the middle of an impressive landscape with beautiful sea views. It is located halfway between Aeropoli and Cape Tenaro.