A closer look
Santorini's iconic blue and white architecture is not some deeply rooted ancient aesthetic tradition, but rather a relatively modern political mandate originally enforced by a military dictatorship in the nineteen sixties to promote uniformity. The stark white wash was initially implemented to fight a cholera outbreak because the limestone contained antibacterial properties, and the blue domes were later popularized entirely for marketing materials to identically match the colors of the Greek flag. Millions of honeymooners flock to these crowded cliffsides utterly convinced they are stepping into centuries of untouched romantic history, when they are actually just admiring a highly regulated public health measure turned lucrative branding exercise
