Fira or Santorini Town

Santorini Town or Fira

Despite the fact that Fira (pronounced Feer-AH), the island capital, had to be half rebuilt after an earthquake in 1956, it retains its very characteristic Cycladic village beauty, with its maze of white houses and blue-domed churches and chapels, with the added glory of its location at the top of the high crater walls, from which the views of the caldera and its islets are stunning, those from the Orthodox cathedral especially so. To the east of the town are vineyards from which the famous wines of Thira/Santorini are produced, planted in fertile volcanic soil.

In the newer, rebuilt part of town to the north, is found the Roman Catholic cathedral, adjacent to which is the Dominican convent with its carpet-weaving studio, with items for sale to the public. The sizeable Catholic community of Thira dates back to Venetian times, as on the islands of Syros, and to a lesser extent, Naxos. An old mansion between the cathedral and the convent houses the Megaro Ghizi Museum, with ceramics, prints, maps, furniture, engravings, manuscripts, costumes and photos of Fira before and after the 1956 earthquake.