Chios - Mesta medieval village

Mesta, is a perfectly preserved village-castle of the Byzantine period (14th and 15th centuries). It has been designated a listed monument and it is found 35 Km southwest of the town. The Castle-village, takes you back centuries, with its very few changes. It keeps its houses tied tightly together in what seems like a closed and compact form. The streets are cobbled and narrow. This type of fortress, a four-cornered structure, was built for protection against the frequent attacks by pirates and Turks, as well as for better cultivation of the mastic bush. It lies in small, treeless valleys far from the sea. The gray houses had doors and windows that faced only the interior of the wall, that is, inside the village. The outer walls contained adjoining parapets with small towers at the corners and gates at two or three points. At the center of every medieval village rises the defense tower, a form of Acropolis, where the inhabitants took refuge in the case of attack, using a movable bridge.