Places stenaavel Wants to Go

After a catastrophic forest fire, a Greek artist transformed scorched tree trunks outside an old sanatorium into this haunting sculpture garden.

What once sat in the world’s spotlight is today a largely disused ghost complex.

Gladiators once walked this ancient, subterranean passage.

An ambiguous ambience emanates from this centuries old leprosy quarantine.

Ruins of a 13th-century fortress perched above a breathtaking Mediterranean bay.

The ghost town where the villagers refuse to leave.

This striking sculpture of Icarus honors Greece's fallen flyers.

The oldest standing Byzantine church in Athens is tucked within a monastery in the middle of an upscale shopping district.

This 15th-century island fortress later served as home to the executioners no one wanted to live near.

The hermits of Karoulia protect their asocial lifestyles by living on the vertical face of a treacherous precipice.

A Byzantine-era church hidden in a wooded area below the Acropolis.

This famous archeological mystery may be an ancient example of movable type.

This 13th-century monastery chiseled into the side of a mountain is equipped with a bridge that can be lifted to protect against raids.

An abandoned Byzantine fortress and notorious prison.

This secret coastal village is studded with pastel-colored houses all piled on top of one another.

Swarms of dainty flying insects swarm into the Petaloudes Valley to get busy.

Seventeen oak trees sprout from the roof and walls of this tiny chapel without any visual evidence of roots.

This gem is often wrongly overshadowed by the larger, newer Metropolis church in Athens.

This abandoned Greek island was the last active leper colony in Europe.

A little-known park with unusual, half-ruined structures and a mystical energy.

One of the largest single-span stone-arch bridges in the Balkans looks like something straight out of a fairytale.

The ruins of this monumental city founded by the first Roman Emperor are strangely overlooked by most travelers.

This 200-meter-high waterfall marks the site of Achilles’ immortal baptism at the mouth of the River Styx.

Two churches shoot bottle rockets at each others' bell towers in an unusual Easter celebration.