Two Santorini museums matter and the rest are optional: the Museum of Prehistoric Thera in Fira, which holds the frescoes and finds from Akrotiri, and the Archaeological Museum five minutes away. Both are indoors, which makes them the answer to a wet day.
Santorini Museums: Tribute to the history of the Greek island
In Santorini Tours you can find quite a lot of museums. Much more than anyone should expect from an island of Cyclades. This happens due to the great popularity of Santorini and the millions of visitors who can support the founding and function of any kind of museum.
Besides the traditional settlements, the volcanic scenery, archaeological sites and the wineries that contribute to the island’s projection, a tourist in Santorini can also visit the museums where he can gather information in an organised matter about the history and the culture of the island.
We have gathered information about some of Santorini’s museums and we present them to you below:
The Archaeological Museum of Thira
At the center of Fira the Archaeological Museum of Thira is located. At its halls you can see collections of sculptures and writings from the Archaic till the Roman period, as well as pottery vessels and idols made of clay.
Of the most significant exhibits are the great volcanic stone weighting 480 kilos, the Thiracian vessel with geometrical decoration which has been excavated from the ancient cemetery of Thira and it is dated tou the 7th century B.C.
The Prehistoric Museum of Thira
Through the exhibits of the Prehistoric Museum of Thira you can have a taste of the status of the island being one of the most important Aegean centers during the 18th and 17th century B.C. You can also come across to some findings dated back to the 5th millennium (Later Neolithic period).
For many of you all these may be extremely interesting and would like to learn as much as possible, you have the choice to book a Historical Private Tour from our site and experience a 5 hours private tour from special archaeologists and learn more about the history and the culture of Santorini.
The Naval Museum of Thira
This museum is located at Oia. With numerous exhibits the Naval Museum of Thira tries to establish to the visitor the naval history of the island especially during the peak at the 19th century when the Santorinian sailing boats where crossing the east Mediterranean sea, from the Black Sean to Egypt, transporting Santorinian wine for the orthodox churches of the Russian Empire that was used for Holy Communion. This huge network of sea trade brought wealth to the island which help grow even more.
The Folklore Museum of Santorini
This museum is a private initiative that will travel you back in time. Among the exhibits of the museum are the Santorinian House which a traditional house built in 1861 and includes authentic decoration and furniture, the Spilia-Kannava which the traditional place where the wine making of Santorinian grape was taking place.
We would also recommend a private tour in Santorini which you can book from our website. Experience a 5 hours private tour to the most distinct wineries and combine perfectly history and wine tasting.
See more about vacations in Santorini island:
- Babymoon in Santorini
- Walk to the volcano of Santorini
- The best private tours and activities to join in Santorini
- Santorini at the top 5 google searches
Santorini Museums: The Short Answer
Two of the santorini museums matter and the rest are optional. The Museum of Prehistoric Thera in Fira holds the frescoes and finds from Akrotiri and is the best hour on the island indoors. The Archaeological Museum, five minutes away, covers everything that came afterwards.
Beyond those, the santorini museums worth an afternoon are the underground wine museum at Koutsoyannopoulos, the Tomato Industrial Museum at Vlychada, and the Lost Atlantis Experience if you have children. All of them are indoors, which makes the santorini museums the answer to a wet day or a midday in August.
Museum of Prehistoric Thera
The most important of the santorini museums, and the reason to visit Akrotiri and this on the same day.
What is in it. The finds from the Bronze Age town at Akrotiri: pottery, tools, imported goods from Crete, Cyprus and Egypt, a gold ibex figurine found in 1999, and the frescoes that were not sent to Athens.
The frescoes. The Blue Monkeys, the antelopes, and the fragments of the spring fresco. They are the earliest large-scale landscape paintings in Europe and they are three and a half thousand years old.
Where. Fira, opposite the bus station, five minutes from the cable car.
How long. Forty-five minutes to an hour, the standard visit at the santorini museums.
Worth it? Yes, unreservedly, and it makes far more sense after seeing the site itself. See Akrotiri.
Archaeological Museum of Thera
The second of the santorini museums that matters, covering the Geometric, Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic and Roman periods.
What is in it. Sculpture, inscriptions, grave goods and pottery from Ancient Thira and Mesa Vouno, including some remarkable Archaic kouroi and vases.
Where. Fira, near the cable car station.
How long. Thirty to forty-five minutes.
Worth it? Yes if you are going up to Ancient Thira, because the site is bare stone and the objects are all down here. See Ancient Thira.
The Wine Museum
The strangest of the santorini museums: an underground cave cellar eight metres below ground at Koutsoyannopoulos near Vothonas, and better than it sounds.
What it is. A tunnel telling the story of winemaking on the island from the eighteenth century onwards, with old presses, tools, animated figures and an audio guide in several languages.
The tasting. Included at the end, usually four wines, which no other of the santorini museums offers.
How long. An hour with the tasting.
Why it works. It is cool, dark and completely weatherproof, which makes it one of the santorini museums that solves an August afternoon as well as a rainy one.
See the wine museum and the wine tour.
The Tomato Industrial Museum
In the old D. Nomikos cannery on the waterfront at Vlychada, and the most unexpectedly good of all the santorini museums.
What it is. The factory left largely as it was: boilers, the steam engine, the tinning line, the paste vats, with photographs and recorded interviews with the people who worked there.
Why it matters. Before tourism, the island’s cash crop was the tiny volcanic cherry tomato, processed into paste and shipped. The industry ran from 1915 until the 1980s and it is the reason the fields look the way they do.
Where. Vlychada, next to the marina, twenty minutes from Fira.
How long. Forty-five minutes, plus a walk along the wind-carved cliffs afterwards.
See Vlychada.
The Lost Atlantis Experience
Not a museum in the traditional sense, and the one of the santorini museums to take children to.
What it is. A scale model of the island before and after the eruption, a documentary, replicas of the Akrotiri frescoes, and a 9D motion ride that simulates the eruption itself.
Where. Megalochori, on the main road.
How long. An hour.
Worth it? With children, yes, and it explains the geology better than any of the other santorini museums manage. Adults travelling alone can skip it.
The Smaller Ones
The Folklore Museum, Kontochori. One of the santorini museums almost nobody finds: a restored 1861 cave house with its original furniture, a winery, a workshop and a chapel, on the edge of Fira. Small, personal and the best surviving picture of ordinary island life before tourism.
The Maritime Museum, Oia. The most atmospheric of the small santorini museums, in an old captain’s mansion, covering the nineteenth-century shipping era, when Oia’s fleet traded across the eastern Mediterranean and the village was rich.
The Megaro Gyzi, Fira. A seventeenth-century Catholic mansion with engravings, manuscripts and a remarkable photographic record of the 1956 earthquake.
The Bellonio Cultural Centre, Fira. Library and exhibition space rather than one of the santorini museums proper.
Art Space, Exo Gonia. A working winery in old pumice tunnels doubling as a contemporary art gallery. Idiosyncratic, and the least museum-like of the santorini museums.
Santozeum, Fira. Reproductions of the Akrotiri wall paintings, useful if the originals in Athens are the ones you wanted to see.
Together with the two big ones, that is more santorini museums than an island of 15,500 people has any business supporting.
Which Santorini Museums Are Worth It?
If you have one hour. Of all the santorini museums, the Museum of Prehistoric Thera.
If you have a rainy day. Two santorini museums back to back, Prehistoric Thera and the Archaeological Museum, with lunch in Fira between them.
If you have children. The Lost Atlantis Experience and the wine museum.
If you care about wine. The wine museum, then a proper estate tasting.
If you care about how people lived. The Folklore Museum and the Tomato Museum.
If you are going to Ancient Thira. The Archaeological Museum first.
If you are on a cruise stop. Prehistoric Thera, ten minutes from the cable car, and none of the other santorini museums.
Hours, Tickets and Practicalities
Opening hours. The state santorini museums run longer summer hours and shorter winter ones, and both close on certain public holidays. Check the current schedule before travelling out, because the times change from year to year.
Tickets. Modest at the state santorini museums, with reduced rates and free entry for some categories including EU under-eighteens. A combined ticket covering Akrotiri, Ancient Thira and both Fira museums has been offered in some seasons and is worth asking about.
Free days. Greek state santorini museums have several free-admission days each year.
Private museums. The wine museum, the Lost Atlantis Experience, the Tomato Museum and the Folklore Museum set their own prices and hours, generally a little higher and a little longer.
Photography. Generally permitted without flash at all the santorini museums. Tripods usually are not.
Accessibility. The two Fira santorini museums are largely level. The wine museum is a sloping tunnel. The Folklore Museum is a cave house with steps.
Getting there. The Fira santorini museums are walkable from the bus station and the cable car. Everything else needs a car or a driver. See transfers.
Time needed. Allow half a day to cover the two central santorini museums properly with a coffee in between.
Santorini Museums: Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the best museum in Santorini? The Museum of Prehistoric Thera in Fira, which holds the finds and frescoes from the Bronze Age town at Akrotiri.
Where are the Akrotiri frescoes? Split between the National Archaeological Museum in Athens and the Museum of Prehistoric Thera in Fira. Reproductions are shown at the Santozeum.
Is the wine museum worth visiting? Yes. It is an underground cave cellar with an audio guide and a tasting at the end, and it works in any weather.
Are the museums open in winter? The two state museums are open year round on reduced hours. Some private ones close or shorten their season.
How much do they cost? Modest at the state museums, with concessions and free entry for EU under-eighteens. Private museums charge a little more.
Can you visit with children? Yes. The Lost Atlantis Experience and the wine museum work best, and the Prehistoric Thera museum holds attention from about eight.
How long do you need? Forty-five minutes to an hour for each of the two Fira museums, and an hour for the wine museum with the tasting.
Should you see Akrotiri or the museum first? The site first, then the museum, so the objects have a context. Both in one day is comfortable.
Do you need to book? No, except for group visits at the private museums.
Are they good on a rainy day? They are the single best answer to one, along with Akrotiri, which is roofed.
See the Site and the Museum in One Day
We are a local operator running private tours and transfers in our own vehicles, and the combination we recommend most is Akrotiri in the morning with a licensed guide, lunch in Megalochori, and the Museum of Prehistoric Thera in the afternoon. The site and the santorini museums belong together and almost nobody sees them on the same day.
Prices are per vehicle rather than per person, hotel pickup anywhere on the island is included, we guide in twelve languages, and an 80 EUR deposit confirms a date.
See the archaeological tour, the historical tour, or contact us.
Every Village and Site on the Island
Any of these can be built into a private day. Each has its own page with what to see and how long to allow.
Caldera villages: Fira · Firostefani · Imerovigli · Oia · Finikia · Baxedes
Inland villages: Pyrgos · Megalochori · Emporio · Mesaria · Karterados · Vothonas · Vourvoulos · Exo Gonia · Mesa Gonia · Pigadia
Beaches: Perissa · Perivolos · Kamari · Vlychada · Monolithos · Red Beach · White Beach · Agios Georgios · Agia Paraskevi
Sites and landmarks: Akrotiri · Ancient Thira · Akrotiri Lighthouse · Nea Kameni · Palia Kameni · Thirasia · Athinios Port
All our tours: All Santorini tours · Full day tour · Sightseeing tour · Personalised tour · North part tour · Horse riding · South part tour · Sunset tour · Shore excursion · Caldera tour · Food experience · Wine tour · Historical tour · Small group tour
Planning and services: Famous sights tour · Private transfers · Transfers to Oia and Finikia · Transfers to other villages · Villages of Santorini · History of Santorini · Tours near you · Languages we guide in · Food and fun tours · Gay friendly tours · Our tour buses · Daily tours · Day tours · FAQ · Gallery · Tour photo gallery · About us · Contact · Blog
