Ioannina Island in Nisos Ioanninon, Greece

On an island in a Greek lake sits one of the country's most significant spiritual centers. Per Atlas Obscura, Ioannina Island hosts a complex of monasteries that's the third most important in Greece, after only Mount Athos and Meteora. Byzantine aristocrats fleeing Constantinople in the thirteen hundreds started construction there, and those elaborate buildings—many richly decorated—still stand today. The island has seen dramatic history: Ali Pasha, who ruled the region from seventeen eighty-eight to eighteen twenty-two, was cornered there by Ottoman troops and killed inside one of the monasteries. About two hundred residents now call the island home, where visitors can explore the buildings and a museum dedicated to the powerful local ruler.

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