Emporio Village

A village with a strong medieval character filled with impressive corners and amazing photo opportunities such as the two iconic blue domed churches with the levelled bell towers.

Emporio is the largest village on the southeast side of the island according to the recent statistics (2011) with it’s population counting 4.000 people all year long.

Most of its residents during the summer months are dealing with tourism while during the winter they are farming their land. Emporio also has an appreciable number of economic migrants from the Balkan countries who are also working in tourism and farm work.

According to one side of the story, the village took its name from the development of commerce (Emporio in Greek means “commercial”) since some years ago, it was the only village in the southern Santorini that had small markets and shops to cover the people’s needs. According to the other side of the story, is likely to be paraphrased from the old days of Germans saying “neoumpourgk” meaning the castle, located in downtown old traditional village. The centre of the village is worth walking and taking pictures because of the small old houses built very close to one another for safety reasons during the Venetian era. Nowadays, many people, mostly young and not only locals, took the decision to restore them and equip them with all modern facilities according to follow a new lifestyle close to the nature, raising up their children in a more friendly environment and eco friendly way of living.