Agios Konstantinos (Local Community of Agios Konstantinos) belongs to the Municipality of Lasithi Plateau of the Regional Unit of Lasithi, located in the Region of Crete, according to the administrative division of Greece as formed by the program “Kallikratis”.
Like all the villages of Lasithi, Agios Konstantinos was settled by the first cultivators, who rented the fields of the plain belonging to the Venetian administration from 1463 onwards, when Venice decided that Lasithi should be cultivated again on its behalf. Tenants built makeshift houses (permanent houses were not allowed) in small settlements, referred to since then as “metochia”, in which they lived during the sowing and harvesting season.
Name and Historical Data
Its official name is “Agios Konstantinos”. The seat of the Municipality is Tzermiadon and it belongs to the geographical division of Crete.
The village of Agios Konstantinos is one of the few villages whose name did not come from the name of its settler because it is actually a union of small settlements (Plathiano, metochi Avgusti) that were located near the original settlement of Agios Georgios. The name of the village comes from its church. The first time it was mentioned was in a census report of Basilicata as San Zorzi in 1630 with 10 houses. Therefore, it must have been founded between the years 1583 and 1630.
In the Turkish census of 1671 it was mentioned as Aya Yorgi with 55 families, the second village in population after Tzermiadon (112 families), (See N. Stavrinidis, Translations, B’, p. 136). In 1834, it was mentioned as Haghio Ghiorgi and together with Platiano – Kudhumalia and Avracodi it had 100 Christian families (See Pashley, Travels in Crete, II, 321). In 1881, it was mentioned that it was in the Municipality of Psychro with 382 Christian inhabitants and 2 Turks (apparently tax collectors, because Turks never lived in Lasithi).
Plathiano was a settlement of the community of Ag. Georgios with 566 inhabitants in 1940. Its name comes from its settler, who was called Plaideno (Castrofilaca K37). In 1630, in the list of temporary settlements (metochia) of the province of Lasithi, it was incorrectly mentioned as Ocra ό Plaidano (= Ochra or Plathiano) with 6 houses and Agios Georgios (S. Zorzi) with 12 (See Monuments of Cretan History V, p. 29,30). It was not mentioned in the Turkish census of 1671. In the Egyptian census of 1834 it was listed as Platiano Haghio Gheorgio with 100 Christian families (Pashley, Travels in Crete, II, 321). And Chourmouzis mentioned it as Plathiano in 1842 (Kritika, p.49). In the 1881 census it was listed as Plathiano in the Municipality of Psychro with 285 inhabitants. In 1900 it was spelled Plathianon and was located in the same Municipality with 263 inhabitants, in 1920 Plathiano was the seat of a rural Municipality of the same name with 276 inhabitants, in 1928 it was referred to the community of Ag. Georgios with 490 inhabitants and in 1940 Plathiano had 566 inhabitants. In 1951, the settlement merged with the community of Ag. Georgios, whose population had doubled, i.e. it reached 1,312 inhabitants (Ag. Georgios 572 + Plathiano 566 + population increase of both 179 = 1,312).
During the administrative division of Greece with the “Kapodistrias” plan, until 2010, Agios Konstantinos belonged to the Local District of Agios Konstantinos, of the former Municipality of Lasithi Plateau of the Prefecture of Lasithi.
Agios Konstantinos has an altitude of 826 m above sea level, latitude 35.1722065684 and longitude 25.5012922133.
Population trend according to the censuses: