The blue-domed churches of Santorini have become one of the most recognizable images of Greece, featured in postcards, travel magazines and photographs around the world. Yet the familiar white-and-blue landscape is not simply a picture preserved unchanged from the distant past.
Santorini’s visual identity evolved gradually, particularly during the 20th century, as public-health practices, architecture, tourism and photography changed the appearance of its traditional settlements. And when it comes to the famous blue domes, there is no single documented date or decision that explains when they became the vivid landmarks visitors know today.
Santorini was once dominated by earthy colors
During the 18th and 19th centuries, the traditional settlements of Santorini had a more uniform appearance and an earthy color palette, according to historical information gathered for Greek Reporter.
The settlements were generally built at higher elevations rather than directly on the coast. The danger of piracy helped shape this pattern, while the earthy colors of the buildings allowed the settlements to blend more naturally into the volcanic landscape.
The characteristic Cycladic forms and the unity of the settlements were central to their appearance. The bright white-and-blue combination associated with Santorini today was not yet the defining visual identity of the island.
This does not mean that every building had exactly the same color. Older building traditions included the use of different natural pigments, including indigo and earthy tones. But the overall appearance of the traditional settlements was substantially different from the uniformly white landscape that has become familiar to modern visitors.
The architectural history of Santorini has been extensively studied, including in the doctoral research of architect Katerina Ritzouli, which examines the island’s architecture and construction from 1204 through the 1956 earthquake. The research was conducted at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki under the supervision of Claire Palyvou.
How Santorini became white
A major transformation came during the 20th century.
In the 1930s, extensive whitewashing was promoted for public-health reasons. Lime was inexpensive, readily available and valued for its disinfectant properties. White surfaces also reflected the intense Aegean sunlight and could help keep buildings cooler.
The practice gradually changed the appearance of the island’s settlements.
The period associated with the government of Ioannis Metaxas is therefore an important part of the story of Cycladic architectural identity. But it would be misleading to suggest that one decision suddenly created the Santorini seen today.
The transformation took place over decades, as practical considerations, architectural regulations and changing ideas about the appearance of the Cyclades interacted with one another.
But when did the domes become blue?
This is where the history becomes less certain — and more interesting.
There does not appear to be a single documented date when Santorini decided that its church domes should be painted bright blue.
Emeritus professor Claire Palyvou, whose research and academic work have focused extensively on the architecture of Santorini and the Cyclades, offers a possible explanation for the emergence of the blue-domed image.
One possibility, she suggests, is that a blue-painted dome initially attracted the attention of visitors and photographers. Its visual impact may then have encouraged the color to be adopted elsewhere.
This remains an interpretation, rather than a documented account of the first blue dome on Santorini. There is currently no evidence identifying a particular church, person or year as the definitive beginning of the tradition.
That uncertainty is important. The story of Santorini’s blue domes is not a simple case of one law, one architect or one government decision creating a famous architectural feature.
Tourism changed the way Santorini looked — and was seen
The 1950s and 1960s brought a growing tourist industry and the wider spread of color photography.
That mattered because architecture was increasingly being experienced not only by the people who lived in the settlements, but also through photographs. Distinctive visual landmarks became increasingly important to the way visitors perceived and remembered a destination.
The combination of white walls, blue details and the dramatic volcanic landscape was exceptionally photogenic. Over time, it became the visual shorthand for Santorini that travelers around the world recognize today.
The 1956 earthquake was another major turning point. It caused extensive destruction on the island and was followed by reconstruction that changed parts of Santorini’s built environment. Academic research into the island’s architecture documents the major evolution of its buildings and construction practices through the earthquake period.
As tourism continued to expand, the white-and-blue image became increasingly associated with Santorini itself.
Blue was not entirely new
There is another detail that complicates the familiar story.
Blue was not an entirely new color in traditional island architecture. Indigo and other pigments had been used historically, including on architectural details such as doors and windows.
There was also a traditional practice of adding indigo to limewash. Under the intense light of the Cyclades, this could produce a subtle bluish tone on otherwise white surfaces.
That is quite different from the strong, saturated blue seen on many of Santorini’s most photographed church domes today.
The existence of blue in traditional architecture therefore does not, by itself, prove that the modern blue-domed aesthetic existed in its present form centuries ago.
A gradual transformation
The political period of the late 1960s and early 1970s also reinforced the association of white and blue with Greece, the Aegean, the sea and the national flag.
But this was only one element in a much longer process. It would be misleading to attribute the creation of Santorini’s blue domes to the dictatorship.
The island’s transformation involved many different forces: practical whitewashing, traditional pigments, changing architectural practices, reconstruction, tourism and photography.
That is why there is no single explanation for the image.
A modern icon built on an older landscape
The irony is that the image most people now consider quintessentially Santorinian is relatively recent.
The volcanic landscape is ancient. The settlements have deep architectural histories. Their buildings reflect centuries of adaptation to the island’s terrain, climate, materials and security concerns.
But the particular combination of bright white buildings and intensely blue church domes that dominates the world’s image of Santorini developed gradually during the modern era.
A photograph of Oia dating to 1923, held by the ETH-Bibliothek and identified as public domain, offers a glimpse of the island before the postwar tourism boom and the later consolidation of its global visual identity.
There is no single architect, law or moment that can fully explain how Santorini became the white-and-blue island known around the world.
Instead, its appearance was shaped over generations.
The blue domes that now seem inseparable from Santorini are therefore not simply relics of an unchanged past. They are part of a visual identity that emerged gradually — shaped by history, practical needs, architectural change, tourism and the power of photography.
The Santorini seen in photographs around the world today is not merely an image preserved from the past. It is an image that history itself helped create.
Sources and expert input
The historical information for this article was gathered with the assistance of Nikolaos Zafeiropoulos, head of the Press Office of the Municipality of Santorini, who consulted Claire Palyvou, emeritus professor of architecture at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and Christoforos Asimis, painter and longtime observer of Santorini’s architectural and visual landscape.
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