Vothonas sits so close to Messaria the two villages have effectively merged, but Vothonas has a distinctive character of its own — many of its traditional houses are dug into the ground rather than into a cliff face, a variation on Santorini's cave-house architecture that's less common elsewhere on the island (see our traditional architecture guide).
Agia Anna and Panagia Trypa
The village's oldest church, Agia Anna, dates to 1827 and holds a carved wooden panel depicting Old Testament scenes, considered one of the more significant pieces of religious woodwork on the island. A short walk from the village centre leads to the small chapel of Panagia Trypa, perched on the edge of a cliff.
The wine museum
Vothonas is also home to a wine museum built into a cave roughly eight metres underground, tracing Santorini's winemaking history back several centuries — a good, low-key stop to pair with a visit to one of the working wineries covered in our winery profiles.
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