Ia

Santorini Settlements and Villages

Ia is located 11km away from Fira. Ia is the first village that can be seen while still aboard and raising your eyes towards the caldera. The view of Ia stretching along the rock above the bay of Armeni and the traditional small port of Ammoudi welcomes the visitors and sets the right mood for what is to follow.

The colours of the rock look as if they moved against the laws of gravity; from dark underwater colours they became the bright surfaces of the buildings, having travelled for thousands of years – a journey that has been imprinted on the rock with a variety of colours and shapes.

Ia owes its name to the Venetian conquerors during the 30s, as its name before that was Pano Meria or St. Nicholas Castle. The so called “Kastelia” used to be built around the whole of the island then – stone enclosures with small openings-observation posts at the highest point of the wall, inside which the biggest part of the settlement was hiding in order to be protected from pirate raids.

They also used to build observation towers, called Vigles or Goulades, which in Turkish means Towers. These were built at the highest point of the enclosure where the guards could watch the sea and inform the people in case of an emergency, with shootings during the day and fire during the night.