Beautifully Bizarre: Discovering The Strange World Of Timboulis
- by XpatAthens
- Wednesday, 07 January 2026
From sun‑kissed islands to mountain hideaways and everything in between, Greece is a playground for every kind of traveller. Every season, every mood, every personality finds its match here, whether you’re chasing adventure, craving pure relaxation, or dreaming of wandering through ancient ruins and legendary landscapes or secretly hoping for something a little… unconventional. And in the category of delightfully unconventional, today’s spotlight goes to the haunted village of Timboulis!
Are you a lover of eerie, quirky atmospheres? A compulsive collector with a soft spot for the bizarre? Then this wonderfully odd museum is calling your name!
Hidden in the Peloponnese, it can be rightfully considered one of the most surreal vilalges of Greece, and is the creation of Uli and Tibor, a couple who go by the whimsical nickname the Timboulis. They took an old café‑grocery store and transformed it into a fully functioning… dolls village.
These passionate collectors gathered and recycled everything they could, from valuable vintage treasures to objects destined for the trash, and used them to build an entire world for their plastic inhabitants. And the result is astonishing. The dolls look uncannily like real villagers: sitting under the pergola sipping coffee, spying on visitors from the balcony, going about their daily lives inside the house. A little creepy? Maybe. But also wildly creative and strangely inspiring. Giving a second life to discarded objects, mixing them into a chaotic yet meaningful universe, they’ve built a place that feels bizarre, charming, and unforgettable.
As you stroll through this curious open‑air museum, you’ll weave between old telephones, vintage televisions, cart wheels, faded photographs, even boats stacked in corners... Every inch of the place is packed with stories, so let your imagination run wild!
And just when you think you’ve seen it all… the dolls move. Haunted dolls? Not quite. But the scenes are regularly rearranged, giving the plastic villagers new lives, new poses, new stories. So no matter how many times you visit, you’ll never see the same scene twice (which is a chance because entrance is free!)!
@artem1s_ale
Main image credit: @_athinadal
Hidden in the Peloponnese, it can be rightfully considered one of the most surreal vilalges of Greece, and is the creation of Uli and Tibor, a couple who go by the whimsical nickname the Timboulis. They took an old café‑grocery store and transformed it into a fully functioning… dolls village.
These passionate collectors gathered and recycled everything they could, from valuable vintage treasures to objects destined for the trash, and used them to build an entire world for their plastic inhabitants. And the result is astonishing. The dolls look uncannily like real villagers: sitting under the pergola sipping coffee, spying on visitors from the balcony, going about their daily lives inside the house. A little creepy? Maybe. But also wildly creative and strangely inspiring. Giving a second life to discarded objects, mixing them into a chaotic yet meaningful universe, they’ve built a place that feels bizarre, charming, and unforgettable.
As you stroll through this curious open‑air museum, you’ll weave between old telephones, vintage televisions, cart wheels, faded photographs, even boats stacked in corners... Every inch of the place is packed with stories, so let your imagination run wild!
And just when you think you’ve seen it all… the dolls move. Haunted dolls? Not quite. But the scenes are regularly rearranged, giving the plastic villagers new lives, new poses, new stories. So no matter how many times you visit, you’ll never see the same scene twice (which is a chance because entrance is free!)!
@artem1s_ale
Main image credit: @_athinadal
LIFE & CULTURE
