Immerse yourself in the rich art of Santorini
Santorini’s unique identity is shaped by its iconic Cycladic architecture, rich artistic heritage, and deep cultural roots. From the whitewashed houses and blue-domed churches of Oia to ancient ruins, contemporary art galleries, and local crafts, the island is a living canvas where history, tradition, and creativity come together.
Perfect harmony between heritage and myth
Defensive History
Architecture
Santorini’s architecture is a true reflection of the Aegean style, uniquely shaped by the island’s volcanic landscape and traditional way of life. As M. Danezis (1939) describes, the organic design of subterranean homes built into the cliffs and interconnected structures creates a seamless blend between nature and human craftsmanship, making Santorini’s built environment one of the most distinctive in the world.
Santorini’s rock-hewn architecture is a testament to the island’s ingenuity, shaped by its volcanic landscape and the need for sustainable living. Carved directly into the cliffs, these homes—found not only in Oia but also in Finikia, Vothonas, Karterados, and Pyrgos—offer natural insulation, staying cool in summer and warm in winter. Their vaulted roofs and interconnected structures create a harmonious blend of functionality and aesthetics, reflecting both necessity and artistry. Built from local volcanic materials like andesite, hematite, and Theraic earth, these homes are a true architectural marvel, seamlessly adapting to the rugged caldera terrain while preserving the island’s timeless charm.
Santorini’s traditional windmills, dating back as early as the 14th century, were built to harness wind power for flour production, often integrated with bakeries and family homes into unique architectural complexes, influenced by the island’s signature vaulted structures, while constructed from local volcanic materials such as andesite, hematite, pumice, and Theraic earth, which were also used in Santorini’s homes, featuring durable floors made from a mix of Theraic earth and mortar, intricately decorated courtyards with volcanic stones or sea pebbles, and symmetrically framed doors and windows made of chiseled red stone.
Santorini’s traditional houses were built using local volcanic materials, including black andesite for walls and fences, red hematite for lintels and facades, and pumice for domes, while Theraic earth, a cohesive volcanic soil composed of ash, lava, pumice, and scoria, was widely used for construction, along with lime from Profitis Elias, rainwater, and timber, which, due to local scarcity, was imported from Ios, Crete, and Russia; the island’s architectural style is defined by vaulted structures, created as an adaptation to the lack of timber, using cylindrical, groined, spherical, and barrel-vaults, with floors reinforced by a mixture of Theraic earth, mortar, and sand, often covered with tiles from Ios, while courtyards were adorned with black stone or intricate patterns of colorful volcanic stones and sea pebbles (hohlidia), and doors and windows were framed with chiseled red stone, arranged symmetrically, with arched doors for the island’s famous kanaves (wineries).
The muse of the Aegean
Santorini has inspired poets, novelists, painters, architects, and photographers, who have captured its essence through their art. George Seferis, Odysseus Elytis, and Elias Venezis wrote about its beauty, while Nikolaos Hadjikyriakos-Gikas and Paris Prekas painted its landscapes. Its architecture fascinated Le Corbusier and Savvas Kontaratos, and photographers from Nelly Sougioutzoglou-Seraidari to Robert A. McCabe documented its ever-changing form. Timeless yet untamed, Santorini continues to challenge each generation to capture its grandeur in new ways.
Santorini as an Inspiration
Art
Odysseas Elytis
Sea-wakened, proud, You lifted up your stone breast Speckled with the southwind’s inspiration For pain to inscribe its very heart there For hope to inscribe its very heart there With fire with lava with smoke With words that concert the infinite You gave birth to the voice of day… …You emerged from the innards of the thunderpeal shuddering amid repentant clouds…
Yannis Ritsos
The salt, the sun and the water are slowly eating away at the houses. In the place where windows and people used to stand, what will remain one day will be soaked rocks and a statue with its face in the dirt. The doors travel in the sea alone, rigid, unusual, clumsy…
(Chtipimata, Testimonies A)
Giorgos Seferis
We found ourselves naked on the pumice stone watching the rising islands watching the red islands sink into their sleep, into our sleep… …the islands – rust and ash – are sinking
Elias Venezis
We head towards Merovigli, this autumn day, awash with light. The white church belfries – their lines exquisite, harmonious – stand out next to the naked, ruined windmills. I reflect upon this harmony, the wise instinct that first bloomed in the hearts of simple island craftsmen to become tradition and legacy, bequeathed from generation to generation. How their buildings are all in the measure of man. Here, the human instinct has subdued nature, the wild form created by the volcano, the sinking of half the island to the seabed. Instinct did not follow nature, took nothing of its colossal and wild character. Here, the art of man followed once more the Greek law, subdued forces, taught measure and harmony.
I.M. Panagiotopoulos
It is unbelievable how much kindness, how much Peace there is on the land of Santorini, the island shaped and ruled by the wrath of demons… Santorini is part of the peculiarities, the idiosyncrasies, the paradoxes of the Greek land. It is another world, with its own rhythm, its own sense. A world that, more than many other Greek worlds, lives always in fear of the inevitable. The other Cycladic islands are more or less peaceful, made in a lyrical mood. Santorini is made by the spirit of tragedy, a very sequestered, angry spirit. It is a remote, secluded and lonely Island; it is in the Cyclades. A recluse, one of those true, pure ones that passionately loved the loneliness bringing them closer to the spirit of God, beyond men and human passions.
Nikolaos Hadjikyriakos – Gikas
Lines stretched like fiddlesticks, following the course of the arrow, through extended parallelograms, cubes, cylinders, cupolas, curves, slightly diffracted lines, combined into a composition of such dramatic intensity that balance is achieved only by miracle. Here, no order is enforced among chaos; disarray seems to rule instead. Consider that this pristine architectural achievement is the work of unknown craftsmen.
Marios Ploritis
…Gazing at the amphibian giant that is the volcano, overlooking the huge ring of the caldera, feeling its black sand and the off-white aspes, you get the impression that you are witnessing the creation of the world… …Two faced and beautiful, wild and tame, Santorini is and remains magical –a fairy that enchants you, softening and forever holding you captive with her charms…
Spyros Potamianos
Did you ever imagine that the black and fiery throne of the Devil stands on a Greek island? Well, seeing is believing. “The devil’s island” – that’s what travellers of yore used to call Santorini as they sailed with their frigates and their galleys through its exotic bay. Even today, when reaching the bottomless bay of Santorini by ship, visitors admit that what they see justifies this medieval name. Indeed, only the Devil could set his throne on this infernal place.