Hotels
At twelve, Stratis Batagias slipped inside an abandoned sanatorium deep in the fir forest of Mount Mainalo and carved his initials into one of its walls. Thirty years later, he returned to find them still there. He bought the 1929 building at auction and spent nine years bringing it back to life, preserving the stone, scars and silence that had stayed with him since childhood. Today, at 1,200 metres in the Arcadian mountains, MANNA feels both monumental and deeply personal: a forgotten place brought back to life by the boy who never forgot it.
Deep in Mount Mainalo’s fir forest, above Magouliana in mountainous Arcadia.
A 1929 tuberculosis sanatorium left abandoned for more than eight decades.
A 32-key mountain retreat within a carefully restored heritage building.
Design lovers, food enthusiasts and travellers seeking a quiet mountain escape.
Ancient fir trees, weathered stone, firelight and silence at 1,200 metres.
The remarkable restoration, exceptional cooking, forest walks and firelit evenings.
Built in 1929 through the efforts of Anna Mela, the sanatorium was created around the belief that clean mountain air, sunlight and seclusion could aid recovery. After closing, it stood abandoned for more than eighty years, its corridors exposed to weather, animals and the surrounding fir forest.
Stratis Batagias first entered the ruin at twelve, while staying at a nearby summer camp, and carved his initials into one of its walls. Three decades later, he returned to find them still there. He bought the building at auction and began the long process of bringing it back to life.
The sanatorium was restored rather than remade. Its original scale, stonework and surviving surfaces were carefully preserved, while chestnut, wool, linen and locally sourced materials introduce warmth without concealing its age. Every intervention was designed to retain the scars and memory of the original building.
MANNA’s 32 rooms and suites are arranged throughout the restored sanatorium, where high ceilings, long windows and traces of the former building remain part of the experience. K-Studio softened the architecture with chestnut wood, rattan, wool, linen and custom furniture made by local craftspeople. Heated floors, rainfall showers and views into the forest bring comfort to every category, while the larger rooms add private balconies, sitting areas, mountain and lily pond views and, in The MANNA Suite, a freestanding copper bathtub.
The Superior Mountain View, for its private balcony, sitting area and views across the lily pond towards Mount Mainalo. It captures what MANNA does best: altitude, silence and the feeling of being completely surrounded by forest.
View all rooms and ratesMANNA’s 32 rooms and suites are arranged throughout the restored sanatorium, where high ceilings, long windows and traces of the former building remain part of the experience. K-Studio softened the architecture with chestnut wood, rattan, wool, linen and custom furniture made by local craftspeople. Heated floors, rainfall showers and views into the forest bring comfort to every category, while the larger rooms add private balconies, sitting areas, mountain and lily pond views and, in The MANNA Suite, a freestanding copper bathtub.
The Superior Mountain View, for its private balcony, sitting area and views across the lily pond towards Mount Mainalo. It captures what MANNA does best: altitude, silence and the feeling of being completely surrounded by forest.
View all rooms and rates26 rooms + 6 suites
5 room types
2–3 people
Ages 12+
Pet friendly
1 Night
An intimate room opening directly towards the surrounding fir forest.
MANNA’s most compact category places the forest at the centre of the stay. High ceilings and a timber framework divide the sleeping, bathing and dressing areas, while textured glass, terrazzo flooring and soft natural fabrics bring warmth to the original sanatorium architecture.
Food at MANNA is inseparable from the mountains around it. Chef Athinagoras Kostakos builds the menu around Arcadian farms, nearby smallholders, beekeepers and foragers, using what the landscape offers through each season. Fir honey, wild mushrooms, truffles, chestnuts, mountain dairy and slow-cooked meats appear in food that is inventive and beautifully presented, yet generous and deeply comforting. It is serious cooking without the ceremony of fine dining, best enjoyed slowly after a day in the forest.
Athinagoras Kostakos transforms the food of the surrounding mountains into dishes that feel precise without becoming formal. Recent menus have included chestnut soup with truffle foam, mushroom and truffle orzotto, wild boar cheeks braised in red wine and tagliatelle with fermented mushroom butter. The kitchen follows the seasons and the people supplying it, making the restaurant a genuine part of the destination rather than simply somewhere to eat between activities.
Contemporary Greek cooking with Mediterranean influences
Nearby smallholders, mountain dairies, livestock farmers, beekeepers and forest foragers
Menus follow local harvests, forest ingredients and what nearby producers bring
Mushrooms and truffles, mountain meats, fir honey and seasonal vegetables
Breakfast, lunch and dinner
The bar introduces guests to MANNA with a warm mountain tea on arrival, made with herbs connected to the surrounding landscape. Later, it becomes a relaxed place for the hotel’s bespoke coffee blend, aperitifs, malt whiskies and Greek spirits, served inside or beside the ponds and fir trees.
Mountain infusions, speciality coffee, cocktails and spirits
Local herbs, Greek distillers and a bespoke artisanal coffee blend
Open throughout the year
MANNA’s welcome mountain tea
Welcome drinks, coffee, aperitifs and evening drinks
Food at MANNA is inseparable from the mountains around it. Chef Athinagoras Kostakos builds the menu around Arcadian farms, nearby smallholders, beekeepers and foragers, using what the landscape offers through each season. Fir honey, wild mushrooms, truffles, chestnuts, mountain dairy and slow-cooked meats appear in food that is inventive and beautifully presented, yet generous and deeply comforting. It is serious cooking without the ceremony of fine dining, best enjoyed slowly after a day in the forest.
Athinagoras Kostakos transforms the food of the surrounding mountains into dishes that feel precise without becoming formal. Recent menus have included chestnut soup with truffle foam, mushroom and truffle orzotto, wild boar cheeks braised in red wine and tagliatelle with fermented mushroom butter. The kitchen follows the seasons and the people supplying it, making the restaurant a genuine part of the destination rather than simply somewhere to eat between activities.
Contemporary Greek cooking with Mediterranean influences
Nearby smallholders, mountain dairies, livestock farmers, beekeepers and forest foragers
Menus follow local harvests, forest ingredients and what nearby producers bring
Mushrooms and truffles, mountain meats, fir honey and seasonal vegetables
Breakfast, lunch and dinner
The landscape surrounding MANNA is not simply something to look at. It shapes how guests spend their days, from following a local forager beneath the fir trees to riding through Mount Mainalo or retreating into the hotel’s cave pool and forest sauna. Each experience offers a different way into Arcadia, through its food, its landscape and the restorative qualities that first brought people to this mountain almost a century ago.
MANNA began with Stratis Batagias returning to the abandoned sanatorium he had explored as a child, but bringing it back required a much wider collaboration. Architects, archaeologists, local craftspeople and specialist teams worked to preserve what remained and rebuild only what had been lost. Original plaster sits beside locally sourced stone, while chestnut, rattan, wool and linen soften the building without concealing its age. Every material carries part of the landscape, and every intervention respects the life the building held before.
For Stratis Batagias, MANNA began long before there was any idea of creating a hotel. He first entered the abandoned sanatorium as a twelve-year-old boy from a nearby summer camp, carving his initials into one of its walls. Thirty years later, he returned to find them still there. After buying the building at auction, he spent nine years restoring it, choosing to preserve its weathered stone, original plaster and traces of the lives that had passed through it. MANNA is the result of that unusually personal journey: not simply a building rescued from abandonment, but a childhood memory transformed into one of Greece’s most remarkable mountain hotels.
MANNA sits at 1,200 metres in the fir forest of Mount Mainalo, near Magouliana and far from the Greece most travellers know. The hotel is both a destination in itself and a base for exploring Arcadia’s stone villages, mountain trails, rivers and cliffside monasteries. Days can remain close to the old sanatorium, moving between the forest, long meals and the spa, or extend into the surrounding landscape before returning to MANNA at dusk.
