Guide of Thira (Santorini)

Santorini is perhaps the best-known island in the Cyclades due to its disarming beauty and its cliffs that overlooking the sea. It is a volcanic island and its black rocks create a particular contrast with the typical white Cycladic houses and villages that lie on the coasts as if they had been sleeping for millennia.

History

Santorini, whose real name is Thira, has a thousand-year history and in 1530 BC there was a volcanic eruption that destroyed most of the island. There are still traces of this event and you can still see the 20km-wide crater at the centre of the lagoon that formed and then prevented anyone from living on the island for hundreds of years. In fact, the commerce began again once around 400 people returned to the island and began to trade in concrete that is sent around the world still today. Archaeological excavations in the middle of the last century in the crater uncovered the Minoan village of Akrotiri that is fully preserved and currently open to the public. Grand museums and Venetian residences also demonstrate how this island already had a thriving civilization in ancient times. When the Venetians conquered the island during the Fourth Crusade, they changed its name to St.Irene, which then faded over time and it became known as Santorini.

Beaches  

On Santorini there are wonderful cliffs, long beaches, crystal clear sea whose colours will take your breath away. Everything in Santorini is beautiful, the land covered with vineyards, its jagged coasts, the sea and the blue sky which contrasts the white villages with slate roofs in the distance. Firà is the capital with narrow streets, domes and tiny squares. There is a decent amount of nightlife to with clubs where you can dance until dawn on the beautiful black beaches of Perissa and Perivolos, Monolithos and Kamari.