Saint Mina’s Orthodox Church

This guide to Saint Mina's Orthodox Church in Santorini opens beneath the altar, where the sanctuary was carved directly into the caldera's volcanic rock, then turns to the ninth of July nineteen fifty-six, when one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded on the island tore through Fira. You'll hear about the four centuries of masonry behind the chapel known locally as the Katofirianos, built sometime between fifteen thirty-seven and sixteen fifty and enlarged in eighteen sixteen by the abbot of the nearby Profitis Ilias monastery. Stand on the little terrace and look past the whitewashed walls toward the sea where the volcano once stood whole.