There is a town in Greece like no other.

Lakki, on the Dodecanese island of Leros, is unique. Its church, austere and minimalist, is more Bauhaus than Mamma Mia. The school, with its wide, looping porticos, is a hybrid of modernist and Byzantine elements. The pulsating Art Deco cinema seems to power towards the sea like a speeding bullet train. Just behind it, a UFO-shaped atrium latches onto the town’s imposing clock tower. A strange, disc-shaped appendage sprouts from the tower like a toadstool. As if to hammer home the surreal nature of it all, all four clock faces show different times.

Few people know this place exists, and even those who live here view their town with a degree of scepticism.

Its origins date back to the early 20th Century when Leros, along with the rest of the Dodecanese, was under Italian rule. Strategically placed and gifted with one of southern Europe’s biggest natural harbours, it was here that Mussolini decided to house the Royal Italian Navy, as part of his plan to establish control over the eastern Mediterranean.