Mesa Lasithi (Local Community of Mesa Lasithi) 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”.
Its official name is “Mesa Lasithion”. The seat of the Municipality is Tzermiadon and it belongs to the geographical division of Crete. Mesa Lasithi has an altitude of 874 m above sea level.
Historical data
The village is located on the eastern side of the plain of the Plateau. It is built on the fringes of Mount Samia and is close to the Holy Monastery of Kroustallenia. It used to produce apples of an excellent variety, which unfortunately has almost stopped in recent years. In the hills, located inside the village, remains of settlements and various shells have been found, which indicates that parts of Lasithi had been inhabited since the Late Minoan or even earlier times.
In the settlement of Mesa Lasithi, a Primary School operated from 1927 until 1989, when it closed down and merged with the Primary School of Tzermiadon. Today, the building is used by the Municipality of Lasithi Plateau and the cultural association “ALOIDA” for cultural events.
During the period of the Venetian rule, there were various temporary settlements around the village that are preserved today only as toponyms. What is important is that an informal school of ecclesiastical woodcarving was founded in this village and operated for almost a century, from 1850 to 1940. Some of the masterpieces created by the craftsmen of the school today adorn various churches throughout Crete.
Mesa Lasithi was mentioned in the Turkish census of 1671 as Mesa Lassithi with 25 families (N. Stavrinidis, Translations, B’, p. 135). In the Egyptian census of 1834 it was listed as Mesa Lasithe and Mesa Lasithaki with 30 Christian families.
Population trend according to the censuses:
| Census | 1881 | 1900 | 1920 | 1928 | 1940 | 1951 | 1961 | 1971 | 1981 | 1991 | 2001 |
| Population | 449 | 301 | 264 | 351 | 425 | 411 | 465 | 343 | 303 | 489 | 175 |