--- title: "10 Destinations for the Soul: Europe's Places of Stillness, From Iona to Lake Ohrid" description: Ten places in Europe to restore the soul this winter, from Iona and Lindisfarne to Rila Monastery, Lake Ohrid, Delphi, Montserrat, Taizé and Matera. author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-11-04T13:00:00.049Z updated: 2026-11-04T13:00:00.066Z canonical: https://richtravelmagazine.com/article/destinations-for-the-soul-europe image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/pexels-38788124.webp categories: Mindful Travel content_type: Guide region: Europe publication: Rich Travel Magazine schema_type: Article --- Some places ask nothing of you. You arrive, the light changes, a bell rings somewhere across the water, and for a while the long list in your head goes silent. Europe is full of them, many shaped by monks, hermits and pilgrims who chose a spot precisely because it was hard to reach and easy to be still in. These ten are not the obvious pilgrim roads, which we mapped in our guide to [Europe's sacred routes](https://richtravelmagazine.com/article/sacred-routes-europe). They are places to stay in rather than walk through, and most of them are at their most beautiful in the low season, [when the crowds have gone home](https://richtravelmagazine.com/article/day-trips-europe-crowded-cities-sintra-pompeii). ## Iona, Scotland Iona is a small island off the western tip of Mull, and the ferry from Fionnphort takes about five minutes. Columba arrived here from Ireland in 563 and founded the monastery that carried Christianity across Scotland and northern England. The restored abbey still stands above the shore, home to the ecumenical Iona Community, and the island's white sand and green water look more like the Caribbean than the Hebrides on a bright day. Historic Environment Scotland opens the abbey and nunnery from Monday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm, between October and March. Ferries can be cancelled in rough weather, and the abbey may close at short notice when they are, so build a spare day into any winter trip. ## Lindisfarne, England The Holy Island of Lindisfarne, off the Northumberland coast, is cut off by the tide twice a day. St Aidan founded a monastery here in 635 at the invitation of King Oswald, and it was here that the Lindisfarne Gospels, one of the great illuminated books of the early medieval world, were made in honour of St Cuthbert. The ruined priory, the small village and the castle on its rock all sit inside a national nature reserve full of wading birds. Crossing is part of the experience. Northumberland County Council publishes safe crossing times for the road causeway months in advance, and it asks visitors to allow about 30 minutes extra in high wind. The older Pilgrims' Way across the open sands is a different matter: walk it only in daylight with someone who knows the route, and never on a rising tide. ## Glendalough, Ireland St Kevin came to this glaciated valley in the Wicklow Mountains in the sixth century, looking for solitude between two dark lakes. The monastic city that grew around him survives as a round tower, a cluster of stone churches and a graveyard of leaning crosses, with the mountains closing in on every side. Walking trails run from the monastic site along the shore of the Upper Lake, and the valley is less than two hours' drive from Dublin. Between 15th October and mid-March, the Glendalough visitor centre opens daily from 9.30am to 5pm, with last admission at 4.15pm. Arrive early on a winter morning and you may have the round tower to yourself. ## Taizé, France In 1940 a young Swiss Protestant, Brother Roger, settled in the Burgundian village of Taizé and founded a community of brothers drawn from different churches. Today tens of thousands of visitors come each year, most of them young, to share three daily prayers built around short sung chants that are repeated until the words become a kind of breathing. There is no hurry and no sermon to sit through, only song, silence and long meals at shared tables. Weeks are organised by age, for young people aged 18 to 35, teenagers, adults over 35 and families, and the community also offers a week of silent retreat. Bookings are taken by phone. The brothers also travel: the next European Meeting of Young Adults, their great winter gathering, takes place in Łódź, Poland, from 28th December 2026 to 1st January 2027, with participants staying in local homes. ## Montserrat, Spain The serrated pink mountain of Montserrat rises about an hour from Barcelona, and the Benedictine abbey wedged into its cliffs celebrated its thousandth year in 2025, having been founded in 1025. Pilgrims come to see La Moreneta, the Black Madonna, who has drawn kings, popes and ordinary travellers for centuries. In 1522, Ignatius of Loyola kept a night's vigil before her, a moment that set him on the road to founding the Jesuits. The Escolania, one of the oldest boys' choirs in Europe, sings for the Virgin each day, and it is the sound most visitors carry home. Above the abbey, hiking trails climb to old hermitages and viewpoints among the rock towers, where the only noise is the wind. ## Rila Monastery, Bulgaria Rila sits at about 1,147 metres in a forested valley of the Rila Mountains, 117 kilometres south of Sofia. It was established in 927 and is traditionally linked to the hermit St Ivan of Rila, whose followers built the community around his cave. A fire destroyed much of it in 1833, and the monastery you see today, with its striped arcades and painted galleries, was rebuilt between 1834 and 1862. The frescoes, finished in 1846, were painted by masters from Bansko, Samokov and Razlog, among them Zahari Zograf. The stone Hrelyo's Tower, built in 1334 and 1335, is the oldest building on the site. UNESCO added the monastery to its World Heritage list in 1983, and in winter the snow on the surrounding peaks makes its colours even brighter. ## Lake Ohrid, North Macedonia Lake Ohrid is thought to be about 1.3 million years old, one of the oldest and deepest lakes in Europe at around 288 metres, and home to more than 200 species found nowhere else. The town on its shore was called the Jerusalem of the Balkans; legend says it once had 365 churches, and more than 50 can still be visited. St Clement founded the first Slavonic university in the Balkans here, one of the reasons the Ohrid region, shared with Albania, is on UNESCO's World Heritage list for both its culture and its nature. Walk at sunset to the Church of St John at Kaneo, which stands alone on a cliff above the water. Then travel 29 kilometres south to the Monastery of St Naum, near the Albanian border, where springs feed the lake and peacocks wander the courtyard. ## Delphi, Greece The ancient Greeks believed Delphi was the centre of the world, the spot where two eagles released by Zeus met, and they marked it with a stone called the omphalos, the navel. The Sanctuary of Apollo spills down the slopes of Mount Parnassus above a sea of olive trees, and pilgrims came for centuries to put their questions to the oracle. The words carved at the temple, 'know thyself', still feel like the right instruction for any traveller. The site museum holds the bronze Charioteer of Delphi, one of the finest surviving sculptures of the classical age. In winter, staffing shortages have reduced access on some days, so check the Greek Ministry of Culture's current hours before you make the drive of around three hours from Athens. ## Matera, Italy [Matera, in Basilicata](https://richtravelmagazine.com/article/exploring-southern-italy-by-rail-a-journey-through-time-and-tranquillity), is a city carved out of a ravine. Its Sassi, the old cave districts, were inhabited for thousands of years, emptied in the 1950s and slowly brought back to life; UNESCO listed them in 1993, and the city was European Capital of Culture in 2019. Among the honey-coloured houses are more than a hundred rock churches, many painted with Byzantine frescoes. The most striking is Santa Maria de Idris, on the Monterrone crag in the middle of the Sasso Caveoso. A tunnel links it to the crypt of San Giovanni in Monterrone, where frescoes from the 12th to the 17th centuries show Christ Pantocrator, St John the Baptist, St Nicholas and the Archangel Michael. Stay overnight in one of the cave hotels and walk the Sassi after dark, when the lamps come on across the ravine. ## Assisi, Italy Assisi has had an extraordinary year. Pope Leo XIV proclaimed a Franciscan Jubilee Year to mark the 800th anniversary of the death of St Francis, running from 10th January 2026 to 10th January 2027, and earlier this year his remains were displayed for the public in a historic viewing that drew thousands of pilgrims. From this year, 4th October, the feast of St Francis, is once again a national holiday in Italy, for the first time since 1977. The Basilica of San Francesco, with Giotto's frescoes of the saint's life in the upper church and his tomb below, is the centre of any visit. Down on the plain, the vast Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli shelters the Porziuncola, the tiny chapel where Francis began his community. Come in the weeks before the Jubilee closes and the town is still filled with pilgrims; come in a still January week afterwards and you may hear only the bells.