150,000 Serbs arrived in Corfu.Many of the injured and sick soldiers were sent to Vidos, but the poor living conditions and hygiene meant that 30,000 of them died on the island. Therefore it has since been called the ‘island of death”.Due to the small size of the island, it soon became necessary to bury the dead in the sea (by weighting the corpses with rocks to prevent them from floating). Over 5,000 people were buried at sea near the island of Vidos, where the waters are known as the Blue Sea Tomb.

We walked through the woods on rough stony tracks and followed an ancient brick wall, probably built centuries ago by those cunning Venetians, who once owned the island between the 16th and 19th centuries.It was reminiscent ofand green shutters and a balcony, this once majestic house had been long abandoned, and was now a ruin.

The outside structure was virtually complete, but peering through open doorways, you could see derelict rooms, broken floorboards, crumbling staircases.There was even a cellar with stone steps leading down to a cavernous room.

Interior of derelict house – part of the staircase.

Trapdoor to the cellar

If this had been in the U.K., the whole site would have been fenced off, warning notices erected, and vandals would probably have sprayed graffiti everywhere, or used it for late night parties.But this was Greece, and people don’t do that.Even the children playing nearby knew not to enter.

At the front of the old house, leading down from the grand pillared entrance, were many steps, which eventually