Archaeological Site Palaeochora of Aegina

Paleochora was the capital of Aegina for roughly a thousand years, a town built on a steep, bare hill inland so that pirates could not see it from the sea. It was abandoned in the early 19th century, when safer times let people move back to the coast, and the houses have long since crumbled away.

What survives are the churches: dozens of small chapels scattered over the slope, many with fragments of frescoes, linked by stony paths up to the ruins of a Venetian castle at the top. It is free, unfenced and almost always quiet. Wear proper shoes, bring water, avoid the midday heat and allow a couple of hours. It sits just across the valley from the church of Saint Nektarios, so the two combine easily.