West Mani hides many treasures and its enchanting villages “testify” countless secrets … So read what to look for and where:

  • The church of Agia Sofia in the homonymous village, which is located very close to Kardamyli. The village is also called Gournitsa.
  • The last village of Exo Mani, Agios Nikon or Poliana.
  • The old cobbled path that started in Kampos with destination Mystras, in the village of Altomira. The village is located amphitheatrically built on the hillside of Taygetos and was named after the robber Altomoros who found refuge in the area. In the uninhabited village today you will also admire churches with magnificent frescoes, stone houses, exceptional examples of Mani architecture and the double stone bridge in Biliovo, in the gorge of Ridomo.
  • The numerous historical monuments in the village of Exochori.
  • The Byzantine-style church of Agios Nikolaos, the historic Monastery of Profitis Ilias and Zoodochos Pigi in the settlement of Kallianeika.
  • The old passage of the road that led from Sparta to the Messinian coast, to the traditional settlement of Lagada with the tower houses and the houses with the tiled roofs. Sights of the area is the old church of Giatrissa which was once the largest monastery on the Laconian peninsula. Also the Byzantine churches of Faneromeni and Agia Marina hagiographed by the monk Andronikos Paleologos, brother of Konstantinos Paleologos.
  • The verdant full of ravines and the traditional houses with the special decoration, settlement of Milia or Fagrianika with the Monastery of “Panagia tis Giatrissa”, which has an unknown date of creation, but also the other Holy Temples that have been characterized as Historically Preserved Monuments.
  • The view of Koroni from the authentic village of Nomitsi which is built at the foot of a small hill of Gaidourovouni. This picturesque place offers wild natural beauty and beautiful cobbled streets that connect it with the neighboring villages. In the center of the village dominates the parish church of Agios Georgios with the wood-carved iconostasis, which is said to have been built by someone who had taken refuge there and with a unique tool a knife. Do not forget to notice the built-in decorative reliefs in the well-built stone fountains of the village which are unique architectural buildings with intense interest.
  • The path of Biliova, in the settlement of Central (Biliova).
  • The tower-like bell of Agios Nikolaos, in the settlement of Brinda (North).
  • The Koukeas Tower in the village of Zacharia or Limbohovo, which is located at an altitude of 680 m.
  • The Holy Oracle of Inos in the mountainous traditional village Thalames. The oracle oracles requested by the passers-by were given by the goddess in their sleep in the form of a dream, while they were sleeping inside the Temple.
  • The church of Agios Mamas that was built in 1750 with the icons from Odysseus and the Monastery of Sotiros to which it belongs, Gospel of the Evangelist Luke in the village of Kalyves located 4 km from Prosilio to Kardamyli.
  • It is also worth visiting the house of Patrick Leigh Fermor, an British-Irish writer and famous resident of the area, who wrote many works about Greece and Mani. The author fought as “Michalis” in the Resistance of Crete, but fell into the battle with his love with Mani and chose to share it with his homeland. It is a house-museum in a beautiful location and a Mediterranean garden.
  • The amphitheatrically built Arachova, the “famous” as the poet Nikitas Nifakos has written in his lyrics. The village is located between two slopes at an altitude of 500m. Here you will find the ruined tower of Goudelis and the churches of Agios Georgios and Profitis Ilias.
  • The Katafygia caves, where the inhabitants took refuge to hide for fear of the Pirates, in the village of Katafygio.
  • Pyrgochori Malta with the historic tower of Koutifari-Aloupidon and the tower of Mavrikios. Here you will also admire the nunnery of Androubevitsa, it is a Byzantine building with elements of Mani architecture. While in the Holy Temple of the Assumption of the Virgin you will see some great frescoes of the 13th century that survive to this day.
  • The remains of a Frankish castle, on the Acropolis of ancient Lefktron. In the prehistoric city have been found a stone pickaxe from the Early Helladic period, a marble head of Athena, a marble Ionian capital, a marble head of a bearded man from Roman times and a clay female head from classical times. Everything is located in the Museum of Kalamata.
  • The secret of the beautiful semi-mountainous village of Petrovouni which is nothing more than the beautiful view it offers to Kardamyli and the whole Messinian gulf.
  • The Kalyves with the stone houses and the narrow streets.
  • The fortified towers in the traditional semi-mountainous village of Platsa, which means plateau or open square, and the Open Theater of Mani in the place Kambinari of Platsa, with the magnificent view. Here you will also see beautiful churches and several temples of Byzantine and post-Byzantine times.
  • The tower or castle of the Kapetanakis in the village of Haravgi. The Kapetanakides were one of the Mani families that were chiefs, they started and continued the revolutionary struggle of 1821. At the entrance of the castle there is still a tomb with human, without mentioning other details.
  • The exceptional natural beauty sea cave Katafygi of Vatsinidis or Votsinidis, near the Proastio village, inside which there are beautiful small lakes, but it is unused. In Proastio you will also see the towers of Perdikeas and Hioureas, the renovated Krini of Melissina of 1643, Agios Nikolaos, the Assumption of the Virgin, the Monastery of Agios Theodoros and an impressive stone bridge.
  • The mines that Kazantzakis worked in Prastova.
  • The tower of the chief Captain Christeas who participated in the liberation of Kalamata, in the square of Agios Dimitrios.
  • The natural observatory village of Pyrgos, thanks to its location you can admire the East coast of the Messinian Gulf and the coastal villages. Look for the Black Cave which from the signs that still exist testify that people lived there.
  • The historic Saidona, as it is said that one of the first blows received by Mussolini’s invaders came from this small mountain village. At the entrance of the village there is a monument for the victims of the war.
  • The settlements of Eleochori, Ano and Kato Riglia which are built between two torrents that start from the mountains of Milia and end at the beautiful sandy beach of Pantazi. Here you will find the Church of Agios Georgios with the beautiful bell tower, Agia Paraskevi in ​​a cave, Agios Apostolos and Sotira.
  • In Kato Riglia there is also a stone vaulted well to testify to daily life in earlier times.
  • The three-storey Katafygi cave in the village of Trachila.
  • The castle of Zarnata, in the village of Stavropigio.
  • Stone houses, creations of famous stone masons and real monuments in the villages of Tseria, located at the highest altitude of the inhabitable villages of Mani.
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