In 1956, a major earthquake struck the Santorini region, severely damaging buildings across the caldera-rim villages and prompting a significant wave of emigration from the island in the years that followed, as many residents left for Athens or abroad.
What it changed architecturally
Much of the rebuilding that followed the earthquake is directly responsible for the look most visitors now associate with Santorini — including the widespread blue-domed church roofs and simplified whitewashed cube architecture covered in our traditional architecture guide. Older, more varied pre-earthquake architecture survives in pockets, particularly in inland villages like Pyrgos and Megalochori that were less rebuilt for tourism than the caldera rim.
From emigration to tourism
The population decline that followed the earthquake meant many caldera-rim properties stood empty or underused for years afterward — property that later became available, relatively cheaply, for conversion into the small hotels and cave suites that now define the island's tourism economy from the 1970s onward.
Spotted something out of date, or have a correction? Let us know — we'd rather fix it fast than leave it wrong.