- TripAdvisor ranked the Museum of Prehistoric Thira in the global top 10%
- Award: Travelers’ Choice 2025, based on visitor reviews
- Exhibits include frescoes, pottery, and treasures from Akrotiri and beyond
- The museum is considered an extension of the Akrotiri site itself
- Recognition strengthens Santorini’s image as a cultural as well as natural wonder
A Treasure House Above the Sea
Perched at Imerovigli, the Museum of Prehistoric Thira has just joined the global cultural elite. TripAdvisor placed it in the world’s top 10% of museums, awarding it Travelers’ Choice 2025. For a space that already feels like a time capsule, this recognition is a soft crown — proof that both experts and everyday visitors sense its quiet importance.
Inside, frescoes bloom with colors that have outlasted millennia, fragments of daily life whisper of vanished households, and carefully kept artifacts chart Santorini’s role as a vibrant hub of the Bronze Age Aegean. The museum is, in many ways, the second heartbeat of Akrotiri: the living room where the treasures rescued from ash finally tell their story.
More Than a Museum, A Journey
The permanent exhibition fills the second floor, 600 square meters, where prehistory speaks in astonishing clarity. Tucked below are rotating displays, offering visitors new glimpses of the island’s layered history — from Neolithic fragments dating back to the 5th millennium BC to the flourishing urban life of the 17th century BC.
The museum’s strength lies not only in its collections but in their state of preservation: frescoes vivid as spring mornings, vessels smooth as if just fired, and details that allow visitors to imagine how it all looked before the eruption that changed the island forever.
An Award That Belongs to Santorini
TripAdvisor’s award is based on reviews from travelers around the world. They mention the quality of the curation, the clarity of the storytelling, and the feeling of stepping into the rhythm of Cycladic prehistory.
As mayors after mayors have bragged of Santorini’s cultural riches, the island’s beauty is doubled when nature and history stand side by side. With this new recognition, Santorini is not only the postcard of white houses and blue domes, but also the keeper of a deeper memory — one etched into fresco and clay, carefully preserved in Imerovigli.
