Discover Santorini Beyond the Blue Domes with Historical Villa Santa Croce

heritage walk

sundowner

Curated & Hosted By

Historical Villa Santa Croce

Location

Santorini

Greece

Duration

4 Days/3 Nights

Price Starts At

$1,839 Per Room

About The Journey

Set within the beautiful village of Pyrgos, Historical Villa Santa Croce presents an exciting way to experience Santorini. Away from the bustle of the caldera's busiest streets, the villa places you in one of the island's oldest settlements, where everyday life unfolds through whitewashed lanes, centuries-old churches and village squares.

During your stay here, you'll wander through the medieval Kasteli of Emporio, explore the remarkably preserved Bronze Age city of Akrotiri, sail across the volcanic caldera that shaped Santorini thousands of years ago, and welcome the evening with the Santa Croce Sunset Ritual. Together, these experiences give you rich insights about the island, revealing the stories and traditions that continue to define Santorini today.

The postcards below share a glimpse of the experiences that await at Historical Villa Santa Croce. We hope they inspire you to discover your own side of Santorini, and we look forward to welcoming you.

CURATED & HOSTED BY

Historical Villa Santa Croce

Santorini, Greece

Set within the traditional village of Pyrgos, Historic Villa Santa Croce is a restored heritage retreat that brings together centuries of Santorini’s history with contemporary comfort. A member of the Historical Hotels of Europe, the villa preserves architectural details spanning from the Middle Ages to the 19th century, creating an intimate sense of place. Its serene setting, Aegean views and thoughtfully restored interiors offer a private escape from the island’s busier corners. With a cave-style spa, indoor pool, outdoor jacuzzi and spaces designed for slow living, Santa Croce invites guests to experience Santorini through history, privacy and understated elegance.

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STANDARD PRICE

$1,839

Per Room

3 Nights / 4 Days, Double occupancy

STARLIFE MEMBER PRICE

$1,599

Per Room

Save $240 | Members Only

Pricing is based on double occupancy and the starting room category. Rates may vary for higher room categories, seasonal travel periods, and special requests. Group booking benefits and solo traveller discounts are available.

7 EXPERIENCES | ALL INCLUSIVE

The moments that make

this journey

STAR PARTNER

Santorini, Greece

Walk Through the Memory of Atlantis

Heritage Walk

Historical Villa Santa Croce

Akrotiri was a Bronze Age city on the south of Santorini, evacuated by its inhabitants before the volcanic eruption of around 1620 BC and then buried, intact, under several metres of pumice and ash. Excavation began in 1967 and has uncovered multi-storey buildings, painted frescoes, drainage and plumbing — the unhurried record of a population that knew enough to leave first. You walk the site under a bioclimatic roof, on raised platforms that let you read the laneways and the rooms from upper levels. Some archaeologists link Akrotiri’s destruction to Plato’s later writing on the lost Atlantis.

STAR PARTNER

Santorini, Greece

Awaken your Senses with Santa Croce Sunset Ritual

Sundowner

Historical Villa Santa Croce

At sunset, high above the caldera in Pyrgos, guests are invited to slow down and enter a different rhythm of time. A powerful encounter with history, nature, and the present moment, awakening the senses and reconnecting to the essence of Santorini. As golden light softens over the caldera, you are welcomed onto Santa Croce panoramic terrace for an intimate sensory journey of taste, sound, touch, silence, and mindfulness. And this is only the beginning. When the first notes rise into the evening sky, something unexpected happens…

STAR PARTNER

Santorini, Greece

Walk Through Santorini's Medieval Heart

Local Culture Cultural Walk

Historical Villa Santa Croce

Pyrgos Kallistis — “the most beautiful” — was the first capital of Santorini and remains the most intact medieval kasteli on the island. Four centuries of Venetian rule left their record in stone: the crossbow vaults overhead in the captain’s houses, the engineered geometry that holds buildings cool in summer and warm in winter, the labyrinthine alleys built to confuse an invader and shelter a community. The walk runs the village’s full vertical — from the castle ruins at the top, down through nine Orthodox churches spanning four centuries, ending in the village square. Two hours, nothing rushed.

STAR PARTNER

Santorini, Greece

Wind Through the Kasteli of Emporio

Local Culture

Historical Villa Santa Croce

Emporio is the other intact kasteli on Santorini alongside Pyrgos, built entirely from volcanic stone in deliberate confusion: alleyways that dead-end, vaulted passages that double back, stairs climbing to balconies that step across to the next house overhead. The design was defensive — the labyrinth meant to disorient invaders while residents moved unseen through the village. Today, it has much the same effect on visitors, who often find themselves pleasantly lost among its winding lanes. You explore the kasteli slowly with a guide, uncovering the stories, architecture, and hidden corners of one of Santorini's most fascinating historic settlements.

STAR PARTNER

Santorini, Greece

Experience Oia Before the World Arrives

Castle Visit

Historical Villa Santa Croce

Oia sits on the northern tip of Santorini, where the caldera cliff drops 120 metres into the sea and the village has become the postcard image of the island. The early hour is the only way to see it clearly. You arrive before the coach groups, walk to the ruined Venetian castle at the cliff edge — damaged in the 1956 earthquake and never rebuilt — and stand for a moment in the same spot where wine merchants and shipping captains stood in the nineteenth century, when this end of the island was the centre of Aegean maritime commerce.

STAR PARTNER

Santorini, Greece

Uncover Oia's Best-Kept Secret

Local Culture

Historical Villa Santa Croce

Most of Oia’s preserved captain’s houses belonged to men — nineteenth-century shipping magnates who made their fortunes in the island’s maritime peak. Domus K 1885 belonged to Kadio Sigalas, a woman who built her wealth and her house in an era when that was not supposed to be possible. The interior has been preserved as it was — the rooms, the cellar, the furniture, the records — and a short wine tasting is included in the tour. After the castle ruins on the cliff, the house reframes who built the maritime nineteenth century, and whom the record tends to skip.

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$1,839

Per Room

Starlife Rate $1,599