Santorini

Santorini's story is shaped by its volcano. Around 3,600 years ago one of the largest volcanic eruptions of the past 5,000 years blew apart the island, leaving the water-filled caldera and burying the Bronze Age port town of Akrotiri under ash, which preserved its frescoes and multi-storey houses. The eruption has been linked to the legend of Atlantis. In the 9th century BC Dorian settlers built a city on Mesa Vouno, now called Ancient Thera; colonists from the island later founded Cyrene in North Africa, and under the Ptolemies Thera was a naval base.

The name Santorini, after Saint Irene, appears in the 12th century. After the Fourth Crusade the island came under the Duchy of Naxos; Marco Sanudo's castle on Skaros dates from 1207, and Venetian rule left a Catholic community and bishopric that survive today. Ottoman rule followed, and by 1810 Santorini had one of the larger Greek merchant fleets. As the castle on Skaros declined, Fira on the caldera edge became the new capital, and the island became part of the Greek state from 1830.

On 9 July 1956 an earthquake and its aftershock killed 53 people on the island and completely destroyed about half its buildings. Many islanders left for Athens. Tourism, begun with yacht cruises in the 1950s, grew to around two million visitors a year; the pumice quarries were closed in 1986 to protect the caldera, and in 2007 the cruise ship Sea Diamond sank inside it. In February 2025 an earthquake swarm led about 6,000 residents to leave by ferry and up to 2,700 by air; a state of emergency lasted until 3 March.

The island's look is its signature. Traditional houses are low cubes of local stone, whitewashed or coloured with volcanic ash, and many are hyposkapha, rooms dug sideways or downwards into the pumice that stay cool in summer and warm in winter. Fira's skyline mixes the domes of Orthodox churches with the Catholic cathedral of St John the Baptist and the Three Bells, reminders of the Venetian centuries.

Wine is a cultural inheritance as much as a crop. Vines trained into low baskets against the wind cover the interior, and the island's wines carry their own designations of origin. Religious life follows the Orthodox calendar alongside the Catholic one, and Epiphany is marked at Kamari with the Blessing of the Waters at an old customs-house arch.

Santorini also lives in the world's imagination. Films such as Summer Lovers and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants were shot here, a film festival is held each year at the open-air Cinema Kamari, and the caldera has become a favourite backdrop for couples from Asia who come for pre-wedding photographs.

About 15,500 people lived on the island at the 2021 census, far more than the 12,000 or so of the mid-1950s, as tourism brought growth. Fira is the administrative and commercial centre, with the bus station, banks, pharmacies and most of the year-round restaurants.

Tourism is the main industry, with farming and wine making behind it: viticulture is the most important branch of agriculture, and the Santorini tomato is still processed at a factory near Monolithos. Water has always been scarce; old rain cisterns have given way to desalination plants, which supply running but non-potable water to most homes, and electricity comes mainly from the power station at Monolithos. Revenue from the Fira cable car is shared among the island's 14 communities and partly supports the traditional mule drivers.

Success brings strains: in summer the island is overcrowded with cruise passengers and beach-goers, and fresh water must be made by desalination. The 2025 earthquake swarm, and the volcano's continuing restlessness, are part of everyday awareness, with evacuation points marked in every settlement.

Santorini's cooking was shaped by dry volcanic soil and little water. Its best-known dish is fava Santorinis, a smooth purée made from the seeds of Spanish vetchling grown only on Santorini and neighbouring islands, which has a protected designation of origin. The Santorini tomato, a small, deep red cherry tomato with a sweet, strongly acidic taste, is fried into tomatokeftedes, tomato fritters; a museum on the island is devoted to the tomato and its processing.

Wine is the island's pride. Assyrtiko, the indigenous white grape, grows on old, ungrafted vines trained into low baskets and makes extremely dry whites with citrus and mineral flavours; Athiri and Aidani are grown beside it, and Mandilaria and Mavrotragano make reds. Vinsanto, a sweet, strong wine of sun-dried Assyrtiko, Athiri and Aidani grapes, is the island's dessert wine.

Fava and tomato fritters are the dishes to look for on taverna menus; meat dishes are not part of the traditional diet on an island with few livestock. Fira and Oia have the most restaurants with caldera views, Kamari has restaurants along its beach, and wineries around Pyrgos and Megalochori welcome visitors for tastings.