Éxo Goniá in Santorini: village church, wine, and hillside setting

Éxo Goniá is a small village on Santorini, built amphitheatrically on a hillside. If you’re looking for a hotel for your trip, the village offers specific points of interest related to wine culture, a prominent parish church, and a cooking class. These themes can help you choose a destination that suits your interests.

Village church and hillside setting

Agios Charalambos is the parish church of Éxo Goniá and one of Santorini’s three largest churches. The parish church anchors the building in the village, while its size also places it in the context of the island as a whole. Together with its amphitheatrical hillside setting, the church shapes the village’s cultural character.

Wineries and tastings

The GAIA Wines winery in Vrachies, Éxo Goniá, is housed in a stone building. Formerly a tomato-processing plant dating from the early 20th century, it was converted into a modern winery by GAIA Wines. The building brings together its former use and today’s wine production.

During the summer season, visitors can taste wines from Santorini and Nemea at GAIA Wines. The Santorini wines include a particular focus on the different expressions of Assyrtiko. Each tasting lasts about an hour and is suitable for both individual visitors and small groups.

The Artemis Karamolegos winery is also located in Éxo Goniá. On the tour, visitors walk through vineyards and wine cellars and learn more about winemaking, from cultivation through fermentation to aging. The tour offers a different perspective on wine than the tastings at GAIA Wines: here, the focus is on each step of the production process.

Cook for yourself with ingredients from the garden

At Aroma Avlis cooking classes, participants can use vegetables from the garden, prepare their own meal, and then enjoy it in the restaurant. This experience differs from a wine tasting: in the cooking class, you prepare a dish yourself, while GAIA Wines focuses on its wines. If you’d like to plan for a class, check availability with the restaurant.

Santorini as the broader setting

Beyond Éxo Goniá, Santorini offers other landscape and cultural highlights. The island is the southernmost of the Cyclades. The Santorini island group is characterized by landscapes with active volcanoes; Santorini’s caldera was formed by a massive eruption around 1600 BC. On the island, Akrotiri preserves remarkably well-preserved Minoan frescoes and buildings that were buried under volcanic ash.

On Santorini, a path along the edge of the caldera runs from Imerovigli to Oia and offers views of the sea, the caldera, and the volcano. Other hiking trails connect Pyrgos with Profitis Ilias, Emporio, and Ancient Thera. These routes are separate ways to explore other parts of Santorini; they are not described as routes through Éxo Goniá.

Pyrgos is another historic point of interest on Santorini: the ecclesiastical collection at the Profitis Ilias Monastery in Pyrgos opened as a permanent exhibition in August 1997. Pyrgos was designated a protected settlement in 1995. If you’re planning your trip around your interests, you can choose from historic themes elsewhere in the wider destination as well as the village church in Éxo Goniá.

For travel planning, the flight from Athens International Airport to Santorini Airport is listed as taking 50 minutes. Check flight schedules and duration before your trip. The Ifestia Festival on Santorini takes place on the third Saturday in September and depicts the volcanic eruption with fireworks. As the program needs to be confirmed each year, check the dates before your trip.

Discover more destinations: Pyrgos, Psathi, Alopronoia, Imerovigli, Oía, Agkali, Perissa, Folegandros.

Back to the wider travel overview: Santorini.