When one opens the map of Chios their eye is set on the southern part of island, specifically at the name “Mesta”. A village, which is located southwest of the town of Chios in the municipality of the mastiha villages and just 36 kilometers from the city’s main port.

A medieval castle, a well preserved and lively memorial, not just for the well condition of the village but also for the tradition that it has been carrying on its back throughout the centuries. It was built by the Venetians to protect the civilians from pirates and years after from the Turks.
The form of the castle if also very much preserved. It’s stone built, it has a main gate that is called the “Door of the Captain” and the homes, which are connected to each other creating numerous dead ends on the small streets, to mislead the enemies.

Today, more entrances have been opened, while two towers have been destroyed from the seven original ones. The seventh tower is the main tower which existed in the center of the village and it was useful in case of an emergency, now it’s has been converted to the Sacred Orthodox Church of the Archangels.

When a visitor comes to the village, once they pass through the entrance, they will leave behind them their daily lifestyle to travel many years back, to the Middle Ages. The visitor may walk through the narrow pathways inside the village, to get “lost” in the numerous dead ends that the pathways lead them and to admire the perfect architecture that makes the village unique amongst the world.