Abandoned places in Greece suit outings with a host across the mainland and the islands. Topics below include the former leper colony of Spinalonga and the old Ellinikon airport. Old Perithia on Corfu, the island of Gyaros and the castle of Old Navarino follow. Related pages cover Villages in Greece, the Mani peninsula tour and Greek islands with ancient ruins. More outings sit under Greece tours.
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What are the abandoned places in Greece?
Abandoned places in Greece include Spinalonga, an island off Crete with no permanent residents by 1962. Gavros, Kranionas and Ano Kraniounas are abandoned villages near Kastoria and Lake Prespa. Ropoto became a ghost town in 2012 after a landslide.
Among abandoned places in Greece, Spinalonga served as a leper colony from 1904 to 1957. A leper colony isolates people with leprosy, an illness that harms skin and nerves. Its first 251 patients came in October 1904. Locals nicknamed it the island of the living dead. Last to stay was the priest Chrysathos Katsouloyiannakis, who left in 1962.
Spinalonga then stood empty for decades and suffered looting during the military rule of 1967 to 1974. Access was banned over a fictional infection risk, a story meant to stop looters. Maurice Born, an ethnographer who studies peoples and cultures, became the first academic visitor after the abandonment. He began his research in 1967.
Daily life on the island had once been busy. In 1936, the law student Epaminodas Remoundakis reached Spinalonga and set up the Brotherhood of the Sick. Its members cleaned the streets and whitewashed the buildings. A café opened, with a donated record player for music. The Brotherhood later organised electrical power and a cinema.
- Kato Chora: This castle near Mylopotamos on Kythira ranks among ghost towns and abandoned places in Greece.
- The Island: Victoria Hislop’s novel about Spinalonga reached 25 languages and was adapted for television.
- Last Words: Werner Herzog used the empty island as a shooting location for this 1968 film.
Abandoned places in Greece such as Spinalonga can rank high among tourist sites. It ranks second for visitor numbers in Crete, after the Palace of Knossos. It stands sixth in Greece overall. European Union funding granted in 2014 aimed to restore 16 of its structures.
Why does an old airport rank among abandoned places in Greece?
Abandoned places in Greece extend to Ellinikon, the former international airport of Athens. It served the city from 1938 to 2001. It lay seven kilometres south of Athens, just west of Glyfada. A large part of the site is still derelict.
Compared with older abandoned places in Greece, Ellinikon is young, built in 1938 as Kalamaki Airfield. During the occupation after 1941, it served as a base for the German air force. The United States had use of it from 1945 until 1993, under a Greek agreement. Greece decided in 1988 not to renew that deal.
Before joining the abandoned places in Greece, the airport had two terminals. Eero Saarinen, a Finnish architect, drew up its East Terminal from 1960 to 1969. Just before closure, it served 13.5 million passengers a year, above its official capacity of 11 million. All flights moved to the new airport at Spata, east of Athens.
After closure, the northwest part of the site hosted venues of the 2004 Summer Olympics. Those venues staged canoe and kayak slalom, field hockey, baseball and softball. One western hangar became a secondary arena for basketball and fencing. The site has also served as a camp for immigrants and refugees.
- Old aircraft: Retired planes and airport vehicles remain on the derelict part of the site.
- Aviation museum: The Civil Aviation Museum ran in the West Terminal between April 2011 and 2018.
- Park contest: In 2005, David Serero, Elena Fernandez and Philippe Coignet won a contest to design a park there.
Abandoned places in Greece can return to use. Work on the Ellinikon Metropolitan Park began at the old airport in 2020. The plans include homes, hotels, a marina, shops and offices. Historic 1930s buildings were pulled down, and this development drew criticism.
What do travellers ask about abandoned places in Greece, and what are the answers?
Abandoned places in Greece owe their emptiness to different causes. Old Perithia on Corfu stands about 450 metres up, a site safe from pirates and malaria. Piracy faded in the late 19th century, and residents began moving to the coast.
Which Corfu village ranks among abandoned places in Greece?
Old Perithia, or Palia Perithia, stands at the foot of Mount Pantokrator. It was declared a monument in 1996. At its peak it held up to 1,200 people, about 130 houses and eight churches. Residents left gradually in the 1960s for coastal tourism jobs. Permanent residents numbered 6 at the 2021 census.
Why does Gyaros count among abandoned places in Greece?
Gyaros lies in the northern Cyclades close to Andros and Tinos, and it is dry and uninhabited. Roman writers made its desolation a common saying. Tacitus described it as harsh and devoid of human culture. From 1948 until 1974 it served as a prison island. At least 22,000 people were exiled or imprisoned there.
How did Spinalonga, one of the abandoned places in Greece, get its name?
Venetian documents trace the name to the Greek expression stin Elounda, which means to Elounda. Failing to understand those words, the Venetians turned them into their own language. Spina means thorn and longa means long. A second theory links the name to the long, spiny outline of the land from Elounda.
Which castle ranks among abandoned places in Greece?
Old Navarino is a Frankish fortress of the 13th century near Pylos. The Franks were western Europeans who held parts of medieval Greece. Its common name is Paliokastro, meaning old castle. It sits on a rock 200 metres high. Its ruins are officially closed, because the structure is considered dangerous.
Featured photo: Z thomas, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.