Santorini: History

History
The island’s modern shape traces back to a colossal volcanic eruption around 1600 BC — one of the largest in human history. It destroyed a sophisticated Bronze Age settlement at Akrotiri on the island’s southern coast and likely contributed to the decline of Minoan civilisation on nearby Crete, possibly through tsunami damage and ash disrupting agriculture across the wider region.

The Akrotiri site, excavated extensively from the 1960s onward, turned out to be remarkably well preserved — buried under volcanic ash in a way often compared to Pompeii, complete with multi-storey buildings, sophisticated drainage and vivid wall frescoes. It’s a genuinely rare direct window into pre-eruption Aegean civilisation.

The island stayed continuously inhabited and fought over by successive powers across the following millennia, including stretches under Venetian and later Ottoman control. The white-washed architecture you associate with Santorini today developed significantly during these later periods — partly a practical response to the intense sun, partly a reflection of the island’s distinctive blend of Cycladic and Venetian-influenced building traditions.

Tourism reshaped the island’s economy decisively from the 1970s onward, as international fascination with the caldera and the island’s dramatic eruption history drove visitor numbers that have only kept climbing — concentrated almost entirely around the caldera-facing towns of Oia and Fira.