Explore Santorini

The Three Bells of Fira is the Catholic Church of the Dormition, an Eastern Catholic church on the caldera cliff of Fira on Santorini. Built in 1757 on the site of earlier cave churches and restored after the 1956 earthquake, it has a blue dome and a white bell wall with three bells, seen from the path along the cliff.

Skaros Rock is a volcanic headland below Imerovigli on the caldera rim of Santorini. A castle built on it in the early 13th century under Venetian rule was for centuries the island's main fortified town; earthquakes and abandonment left it in ruins, and a footpath from Imerovigli leads out to the rock and its remaining walls.

Panagia Episkopi is a Byzantine church near Mesa Gonia on Santorini, commissioned by Emperor Alexios I Komnenos at the end of the 11th century. It was the seat of the island's Orthodox bishops until 1207 and again from 1537 to 1827, and keeps Byzantine wall paintings and a carved wooden iconostasis inside.

Ancient Thera is the ruined city of classical Santorini on the ridge of Mesa Vouno, 396 m above sea level between Kamari and Perissa. Founded by Dorian settlers in the 9th century BC and inhabited into the early Byzantine period, it preserves Hellenistic and Roman houses, an agora, a theatre and temples along its main street.

Oia Castle is the ruin of the medieval kasteli of Agios Nikolaos on the headland at the western tip of Oia, on Santorini. Under Venetian rule it was one of the island's five fortified settlements and the seat of the Argyri family. Its remaining walls now form a lookout over the caldera, the island of Thirasia and the houses of Oia.

Akrotiri is a Bronze Age town near the village of Akrotiri in southern Santorini, buried in volcanic ash by the eruption of the Thera volcano about 3,600 years ago. Excavated since 1967, its paved streets and multi-storey houses, some still standing two floors high, are seen from walkways under a protective roof.

Akrotiri Lighthouse stands on the cape at the south-western tip of Santorini, west of the village of Akrotiri. Built by a French company in 1892, it is one of the oldest lighthouses in Greece; it was out of service during the Second World War and was recommissioned by the Greek Navy in 1945. Visitors see the tower from outside.