[5] Karlovasi is a town with a rich cultural and industrial history, being a flourishing tannery and tobacco manufacturing center in the early 1900s.

Pottery and brick-making became a flourishing business due to the rare quality of the soil in the environs of Karlovasi while the town's market was continuously growing to become the largest and most important in the Island.

An earthquake with a moment magnitude of 7.0 occurred on 30 October 2020, about 14 km (8.7 mi) northeast of the Greek island of Samos.

Many buildings at the town of Karlovasi were collapsed or damaged as the result of this event, which is known as the "Samos earthquake" by the International Seismological Centre.

[citation needed] Karlovasi has an unusually large number of almost cathedral-size churches, due to the fact that the modern town was formed by the unification of four smaller ones, all of them hometowns of wealth patrons such as tannery moguls and ship owners.