The history of Santorini has always been marked by its natural environment, in particular has always been linked to the volcano.

The oldest settlements date back to the Bronze Age, while the archaeological evidence, mostly pottery, dating from the mid third millennium BC and belong to the second stage of the proto Cycladic civilization (3200 - 2000 BC), still ongoing excavations at the site of Akrotiri have confirmed the presence of human activity on the island between 2000 and 1500 BC and the birth of the first urban centers. After the eruption of the volcano around 1500 BC the island was depopulated and the installation of Akrotiri was dubbed as the Greek Pompeii, as it is preserved intact under a layer of lava and ash and is an important archeological record of the time, being by far the most important prehistoric settlement of the whole Eastern Mediterranean. According to the greek historian Herodotus, the island originally bore the name of Strongyle and then that of Callisto. Nearly 300 years after the eruption of the volcano, the island was colonized by Phoenician traders, who stayed for about 250 years, until the Spartans conquered it in 900 BC They gave the island its name of Thera, which survives to this day. The Spartans imposed their way of life, typically austere and military in this period the island lost its importance and its people are devoted to a subsistence economy. It seems that Santorini was excluded from any significant event, such as the Peloponnesian War (431 BC - 404 BC) and the birth and expansion of the Macedonian kingdom, between the fifth and fourth centuries BC, was isolated until 1204, when Constantinople fell into the hands of the fighters of the Fourth Crusade and became the seat of the Catholic bishop. The family Barrozi administered the island a hundred years during which it took its present neme of Santorini a small chapel dedicated to Agia Irini(St. Irene) located near a bay that was to lead to the Venetian fleet. The Venetians were in the Cyclades until 1759, when the island became part of the Ottoman Empire, 126 years after the fall of Constantinople. The Turkish rule eliminated the danger of pirates who had long raged in the eastern Mediterranean, and from then on, Santorini became a flourishing center of trade in the region and its history was then more closely tied to that of Greece.