Mesaria Santorini – Mansions, Wine and the Plain

Mesaria Santorini: The Village at the Centre of the Island

Mesaria Santorini sits on the flat plain in the middle of the island, about four kilometres from Fira and five minutes from the airport. The name comes from mesa, “in the middle”, and that is exactly what it is: the crossroads where the roads to Fira, Kamari, Pyrgos and the south all meet. Book with Santorini Tours, a licensed local operator.

It is not a postcard village and it does not pretend to be. What Mesaria Santorini has instead is a nineteenth-century industrial and mercantile history, two of the finest neoclassical mansions in the Cyclades, vineyards on every side, and a working village economy that runs twelve months a year rather than five.

It is also the cheapest place to stay on Santorini that is still central, which is why a growing number of travellers who have done the caldera once book here the second time.

Where it is

Four kilometres from Fira, five minutes from the airport, ten from Kamari beach, ten from Pyrgos, fifteen from Perissa and twenty from Oia. Nothing on the island is more than half an hour from Mesaria Santorini.

Why go

For the Argyros mansion, the canavas cut into the rock, the vineyards, and a village square where the people around you live here.

What to See in Mesaria Santorini

The Argyros mansion

The Archontiko Argyrou, built in 1888 for a wine merchant family and one of the most complete neoclassical houses surviving in the Cyclades. It has been restored and opened as a house museum, with the original furniture, painted ceilings, family portraits and fittings largely intact. It is the single best reason to stop in Mesaria Santorini and most visitors to the island have never heard of it.

The Saliveros mansion

A second merchant house, dated 1893, in the same neoclassical idiom. Together the two show what the wine money bought on this island in the decades before the trade collapsed.

The canavas

Vaulted cellars dug into the soft volcanic rock beneath the houses, where wine was pressed and aged. Several around Mesaria Santorini survive and a number now operate as tasting rooms or restaurants. The temperature inside them barely moves across the year, which is why they were built.

The cave houses

Yposkafa – rooms excavated horizontally into the pumice rather than built out of it, running back from a whitewashed façade like a tunnel. The caldera villages are famous for them; the plain has them too, and here they are still lived in rather than let out.

The square and the church

The centre of village life, with cafés, a bakery, tavernas and the main church. This is where Mesaria Santorini actually happens, and it happens in Greek.

The vineyards

They start where the houses stop, on every side. This plain is the heart of Santorini’s wine country and the estates here are among the most respected in Greece.

The History of Mesaria Santorini

Settlement. The village has been continuously inhabited since around the middle of the seventeenth century. Like every settlement on the plain it grew where the water and the farmland were, rather than where the view was.

The nineteenth century. This was the island’s industrial and commercial centre. Mesaria Santorini had workshops, mills, a knitwear factory and the trading houses that moved Santorini’s wine to the ports. The two great mansions were built out of that money, in 1888 and 1893, at the exact peak of the trade.

The Vinsanto trade. Santorini’s sun-dried sweet wine went by the barrel to Russia as communion wine for the Orthodox Church. It made a handful of island families genuinely rich and it collapsed with the Russian Revolution. What is left of it on the plain is the architecture and the canavas.

1956. The Amorgos earthquake, magnitude 7.7, hit the island hard. The plain came through better than the caldera rim, where houses were built on a cliff of loose ash, but Mesaria Santorini lost buildings and, in the years after, a great many people to Athens and abroad.

The airport. Built on the plain a few minutes away, which turned the centre of the island from a farming district into a transit point and eventually into a place people stay.

Now. Mesaria Santorini is a working village of shops, tavernas and wine estates that operates all year, with a slowly growing stock of small hotels and restored mansions. It is one of very few places on Santorini where November looks much like June.

The Wine Around Mesaria Santorini

The village stands in the middle of the island’s vineyards, and those vineyards are unlike any others in Europe.

The vines are ungrafted. Phylloxera, the root louse that destroyed almost every vineyard on the continent in the nineteenth century, cannot move through Santorini’s volcanic sand, so the vines here were never replanted onto American rootstock. Some root systems on the plain around Mesaria Santorini are three or four hundred years old, renewed by burying a cane and letting it root rather than by planting anything new.

They are trained into koulara – low woven baskets, the vine coiled around itself at ground level with the fruit growing inside the coil. The meltemi would strip an upright vine, and there is effectively no rain between April and October, so the basket both shelters the grapes and catches the night humidity that condenses out of the sea air.

Assyrtiko is the grape: dry, high in acid, mineral, faintly saline. Athiri and Aidani blend with it. Nykteri is the oak-aged dry white, traditionally pressed overnight. Vinsanto is the sweet wine that built the mansions in this village – grapes sun-dried on mats for up to a fortnight, then aged for years in barrel.

Several serious estates work the land immediately around Mesaria Santorini and most take visitors. Do not drive between them after tasting; the plain roads are narrow and badly lit. Our wine tour covers three estates with all tastings included and nobody at the wheel who has been drinking.

Eating and Drinking in Mesaria Santorini

This is a village that eats for itself rather than for visitors, and the bills reflect it.

What it costs. Roughly 15€ to 25€ a head with wine for a full meal, against 45€ and up for the same food with a caldera view. Over a week that gap is larger than the cost of a private tour.

What to order. Fava, the yellow split pea purée grown on this plain and carrying its own protected designation, served warm with raw onion and capers. Tomatokeftedes, fritters of the small, dense Santorini tomato. White aubergine, sweeter than the purple kind and grown almost nowhere else. Caper leaves as well as buds. Chloro, the fresh goat cheese that never leaves the island. Slow-cooked rabbit and pork, which is what the tavernas here actually serve their regulars.

What to drink. Assyrtiko from the estates you can see from the edge of the village. The house carafe in Mesaria Santorini is local and generally good.

When. From nine. A taverna busy at seven is full of visitors.

Open all year. Unusually for Santorini, most of the tavernas, bakeries and cafés here trade through the winter, because their customers live here.

If food is the reason you travel, our food tour visits producers on this plain and ends with a sit-down meal.

Staying in Mesaria Santorini

What you get. The lowest prices on the island for a given standard, a genuinely central position, shops and pharmacies open all year, and five minutes to the airport. Small family hotels, restored cave houses and a couple of mansion conversions.

What you give up. The caldera view, entirely. Mesaria Santorini looks over vineyards and the plain. If waking up to the crater is the point of your trip, stay in Firostefani or Imerovigli and come here for the mansion and the wine.

Who it suits. Travellers who intend to hire a car and see the whole island; anyone on a budget; families who want flat ground and space; repeat visitors; and anyone arriving late or leaving early, because the airport is five minutes away.

Aircraft noise. Worth knowing: the airport is close and the approach passes over parts of the plain. It is not Heathrow – traffic is seasonal and stops overnight – but ask the hotel which side the room faces.

Practical points. Everything is on flat ground and reachable by car, which is not true of the caldera villages. Buses to Fira are frequent. Our private transfers cover the airport and both ports.

Alternatives nearby. Karterados five minutes north, Vothonas and Mesa Gonia five minutes east, Pyrgos ten minutes south. Karterados · Vothonas · Mesa Gonia.

Getting to Mesaria Santorini

By car. Ten minutes from Fira, five from the airport, ten from Kamari, twenty from Athinios port, twenty-five from Oia. The village is on the main road and there is parking, which is a genuine luxury on this island.

By bus. Almost every southern and eastern route passes through – Fira to Kamari, Fira to Perissa, Fira to Akrotiri. Mesaria Santorini is the easiest village on the island to reach without a car.

By taxi. Possible, though the island’s licensed fleet is very small and effectively fully booked in August.

On foot from Fira. About fifty minutes on the plain. Flat, and pleasant outside high summer.

On a tour. The village and its wine estates feature on our southern and wine itineraries. The full day tour and the wine tour both pass through this part of the plain.

By transfer. Our private transfers run from the airport and both ports from 40€ per vehicle, with flights and ferries monitored.

What to wear

Ordinary shoes. Unlike the caldera villages and the kastelli settlements, Mesaria Santorini is flat and paved, and nothing here involves a stepped lane or a cliff path.

Walking Mesaria Santorini: A Route

The village is flat, small and easy, which makes it one of the few places on Santorini you can walk in ordinary shoes with a pushchair.

Start in the square. Coffee first, at a third of caldera prices, among people who are not on holiday.

Walk to the Argyros mansion. Signposted and a few minutes away. Allow half an hour inside; the painted ceilings and the original furniture are the point, and there is nothing else quite like it on the island.

Find the Saliveros mansion. The second neoclassical house, from 1893, a short walk on.

Cut through the old lanes. Behind the main road the village turns into whitewashed alleys and cave-house façades cut into the rock. This is the part of Mesaria Santorini that most people driving through never see.

Walk out to the vineyards. Two minutes in any direction from the edge of the village and you are among the basket-trained vines.

Finish at a canava. Several of the old vaulted cellars are now tasting rooms or restaurants. Cool, dim, and a genuinely unusual room to sit in.

Allow ninety minutes for the walk, or half a day with the mansion and a tasting.

The Architecture of Mesaria Santorini

Two quite different building traditions sit side by side here, which is unusual.

The neoclassical mansions

Symmetrical façades, pediments, tall shuttered windows, painted interior ceilings and imported furniture. These are not Cycladic buildings at all – they are what island merchants built when they had made money abroad and wanted to look European. The two in Mesaria Santorini are the best surviving pair on the island.

Yposkafa

The opposite tradition: rooms dug horizontally into the pumice, with only the façade built. Cheap, cool in summer, warm in winter and highly resistant to earthquakes. The volcanic ash is soft enough to cut with hand tools and stable enough to hold a vault.

The barrel vault

Where rooms were built rather than dug, they were vaulted in volcanic stone and lime. A vault throws its load into the side walls instead of spanning across, which matters on an island that had a magnitude 7.7 earthquake within living memory.

The canava

The winery cellar: a long vaulted tunnel into the rock, with the press at the entrance and the barrels at the back. Constant temperature, no machinery. Several around Mesaria Santorini are still in use.

The cisterns

Under almost every old house, collecting winter rain off the roof. No rivers, almost no rainfall, and until the desalination plants that was the entire water supply.

The whitewash

Lime, applied for hygiene and heat reflection long before anyone thought of it as a look.

Mesaria Compared With the Other Villages

Against Pyrgos. Pyrgos is higher, older, prettier and has the best all-island view; it also has hills and steps. Mesaria Santorini is flat, cheaper, better connected and has the mansions. Ten minutes apart. More on Pyrgos.

Against Megalochori. Megalochori has the bell towers and the traditional lanes and is the better afternoon walk. Mesaria has the neoclassical houses and the working economy. More on Megalochori.

Against Emporio. Emporio has the medieval kastelli, which is the more dramatic thing to visit. Mesaria Santorini is far more convenient to stay in. More on Emporio.

Against Karterados. Very similar in character and five minutes apart – both flat, central, affordable and unglamorous. Karterados is nearer Fira; Mesaria is nearer the airport and the wine. More on Karterados.

Against Fira. Fira has the museums, the nightlife, the cable car and the crowds. This is a village four kilometres away where a coffee costs half as much. More on Fira.

Against Oia. No comparison and no competition. Different holidays entirely. More on Oia.

When to Visit Mesaria Santorini

April and May. The plain is green, the vines are shooting out of their baskets and the temperature is right for walking. The best window.

June to August. Hot, and the plain is stiller than the caldera because there is no cliff to funnel the wind. Go early or after five, and use the canavas, which are cool without air conditioning.

September. Harvest. The presses run, the estates are busy and growers will talk to you. The best month here.

October. Warm, quiet, and the new wine in tank.

November to March. This is where Mesaria Santorini differs from almost everywhere else on the island: it stays open. Shops, pharmacies, bakeries and most tavernas trade all year because the customers are residents. If you are visiting Santorini in winter, the plain is where you will find it alive.

Time of day

Morning for the mansion, late afternoon for the vineyards and the light, evening for the square.

What Mesaria Santorini Costs

The lowest prices on the island for anything that is still central.

Coffee. 2–3€ in the square, against 4–7€ on the caldera.

Taverna dinner. 15–25€ a head with wine, against 45€+ on the rim.

Wine by the glass. 3.50–5€.

Hotel, shoulder season. From around 55€ for a simple double to 150€ for a restored cave or mansion room.

Winery tasting. 15–25€ a head at the estate.

The Argyros mansion. A small entry fee, and the best-value half hour on Santorini.

Bus to Fira. A couple of euro, and they run constantly.

Transfer from the airport. 40€ per vehicle for one or two people, though it is a five-minute drive.

A private tour. From 220€ for the whole vehicle, pickup from Mesaria Santorini included.

A couple basing themselves here rather than on the rim will typically save several hundred euro across a week, before the cheaper food is counted.

Who Mesaria Santorini Is For

Anyone hiring a car. Central, flat, with parking. Every part of the island is within half an hour.

Budget travellers. The saving against the caldera is the largest on Santorini.

Wine travellers. The best estates on the island work the plain around this village.

Families. Flat ground, no cliffs, supermarkets, pharmacies and a beach ten minutes away at Kamari.

Late arrivals and early flights. Five minutes from the airport.

Winter visitors. Mesaria Santorini is open in January, and most of the island is not.

Less suited to honeymooners and anyone whose trip is built around a caldera view, which does not exist here; travellers who want to walk everywhere from the hotel door; and light sleepers who do not check which way the room faces relative to the airport.

Photographing Mesaria Santorini

The mansions. Neoclassical façades that look nothing like anyone’s idea of Santorini, which is exactly why they are worth shooting. Interiors at the Argyros house are the stronger set.

The canavas. Vaulted stone tunnels with barrels. Very low light; brace against a wall or bring a tripod.

The cave façades. Whitewash cut straight into the rock face in the old lanes.

The vineyards. Basket-trained vines at ground level, best in low side light. Two minutes from the village edge.

The plain at sunset. Look west from the vineyards and the caldera ridge is a black line against the light, with Profitis Ilias to the south.

Technical. Nothing here is crowded at any hour, so Mesaria Santorini is a rare place on this island where you can take your time and use a tripod without being in someone’s way.

Courtesy. The old lanes are residential and the cave houses are homes, not exhibits.

Frequently Asked Questions About Mesaria Santorini

How do you pronounce it? Roughly “me-sa-RI-a”. You will also see it written Messaria.

What does the name mean? “In the middle” – the village sits at the centre of the island.

Where is it? Four kilometres from Fira on the central plain, five minutes from the airport.

Is Mesaria worth visiting? Yes, for the Argyros mansion, the canavas and the wine estates. It is a working village rather than a scenic one.

How long do I need? An hour for the village, half a day with the mansion and a winery.

Is there a caldera view? No. The village is inland on the plain.

Is it a good place to stay? It is the best-value central base on Santorini, provided you are hiring a car or happy with buses.

Is there aircraft noise? Some, seasonally and in daytime. Ask the hotel which way the room faces.

Is there a beach? Not in the village. Kamari is ten minutes away and Perissa fifteen.

Is it open in winter? Yes, unusually for Santorini. Shops, pharmacies and most tavernas trade all year.

Is it accessible? More than anywhere else on the island. Flat, paved, with parking.

What is a canava? A vaulted wine cellar cut into the volcanic rock. Several here are open as tasting rooms.

How do I get there without a car? Nearly every bus route out of Fira passes through Mesaria Santorini.

Can I combine it with a winery? Yes – several of the island’s best estates are minutes away.

Tours That Include Mesaria Santorini

We are a licensed local operator with guides who live on the island year round. Prices are per vehicle rather than per person, pickup is included from anywhere including both ports, and an 80€ deposit confirms the date.

Wine tour – four and a half hours from 650€, three estates with all tastings included, on the plain around this village.

Food tour – five hours from 556€, producers on the plain and a sit-down meal.

Full day tour – eight hours from 460€, the whole island with a traditional village stop.

South part tour – five hours from 280€, Akrotiri, the beaches and the inland villages.

Personalised tour – from 220€, built around whatever you actually want to see.

Every itinerary and all prices are on the santorini tours page. If you are staying in Mesaria Santorini, our private transfers cover the airport and both ports from 40€.

Is Mesaria Santorini Worth Visiting?

As a sight, on its own, for an hour: only if the Argyros mansion appeals, and it should. As a base for a week on Santorini: it is arguably the most sensible choice on the island and almost nobody makes it.

You give up the view and you get back money, space, parking, a village that is open in February, the best wine country in Greece two minutes from the door, and a fifteen-minute drive to anywhere.

Most people should see the caldera. Rather fewer should sleep on it. If you are on your second trip, or your first with children, or you simply intend to drive and look at things, Mesaria Santorini deserves a serious look.

Send us your dates and party size and we will tell you honestly whether it suits your trip.

Day Trips From Mesaria Santorini

Nothing on Santorini is far from here, which is the whole argument for the village.

Fira – 10 minutes. Museums, the cable car, the caldera path and the bus station. More on Fira.

Kamari – 10 minutes. Black sand, a long promenade and the cliff of Mesa Vouno above it. More on Kamari.

Pyrgos – 10 minutes. The Venetian castle village and the best all-island view. More on Pyrgos.

Megalochori – 12 minutes. Wine-merchant mansions and bell towers. More on Megalochori.

Emporio – 15 minutes. The best-preserved medieval kastelli on Santorini. More on Emporio.

Perissa and Perivolos – 15 minutes. The longest black sand beaches on the island. Perissa · Perivolos.

Akrotiri – 20 minutes. The Bronze Age town under its shelter, and the Red Beach. More on Akrotiri.

Ancient Thera – 20 minutes. The Hellenistic city on the ridge above Kamari. More on Ancient Thera.

Oia – 25 minutes. The northern tip and the famous sunset. More on Oia.

Staying in Mesaria Santorini puts every one of those inside half an hour, which is not true of anywhere on the caldera rim.

Practical Notes for Mesaria Santorini

Parking. There is some, free, and on flat ground. On this island that is worth stating.

Shops. Supermarkets, a bakery, a butcher and pharmacies, all open through the winter. Most visitors staying elsewhere end up driving here for exactly this.

Buses. Almost every route out of Fira passes through, so getting around without a car is easier here than anywhere except Fira itself.

Money. Cards are accepted; there are ATMs. Carry a little cash for the bakery.

Shade. The square has some. The plain has none at all.

Opening hours. Afternoon closing from roughly two until six, then open late.

Aircraft. Daytime, seasonal, and worth one question to the hotel before booking.

Accessibility. The best on the island. Flat, paved, and reachable by car right up to most doors.

Respect. Mesaria Santorini is a residential village, not an attraction. The old lanes pass people’s homes.

Common Mistakes in Mesaria Santorini

Driving straight through it. Most people do, because the main road runs past. The mansions are a two-minute detour.

Judging it from the main road. The road frontage is unremarkable. The old lanes behind it are not.

Booking a hotel here without a car. The buses are good, but the point of this village is the freedom to drive.

Expecting a view. There is none, and Mesaria Santorini has never claimed otherwise.

Skipping the Argyros mansion. It is the best-preserved neoclassical interior in the Cyclades and it takes half an hour.

Buying wine in Fira. The estates are minutes away and the same bottle costs less at the door.

Not asking about the airport. One question, answered before you book, removes the only real drawback.

Booking a Tour That Stops in Mesaria Santorini

Coach itineraries do not stop here at all – there is no photograph in it for them. That is precisely why a private guide makes the difference: the mansions, the canavas and the estates are the story of how this island actually made its money, and none of it is self-explanatory.

Tell us when you enquire that the wine country and the plain are what interest you, and we will build the day around Mesaria Santorini, the estates around it and Pyrgos or Megalochori for the afternoon, with the caldera left for another day.

Prices are per vehicle rather than per person, so a family of four pays what a couple pays. Pickup is included from any hotel, the airport or either port, and an 80€ deposit holds the date.

Send your dates, party size and where you are staying, and you will get a straight answer the same day.

A Final Word on Mesaria Santorini

This is the village most visitors drive through four times a day without noticing, on the way from the airport to the caldera and back. It has no view, no sunset and no photograph anyone will recognise.

What it has is the house the wine money built in 1888, still standing with its ceilings painted, cellars cut into the rock where that wine was made, the best vineyards in Greece starting two minutes from the square, and a village that is still open in February.

Stop for the mansion. Stay for a week if you are hiring a car. Mesaria Santorini is the least glamorous and most practical decision you can make on this island.

Everywhere We Can Reach From Mesaria Santorini

Any of these can be built into a private itinerary. Each has its own page with what to see and how long to allow.

Caldera villages: Fira · Firostefani · Imerovigli · Oia · Finikia · Baxedes

Inland villages: Pyrgos · Megalochori · Emporio · Karterados · Vothonas · Vourvoulos · Exo Gonia · Mesa Gonia · Pigadia

Beaches: Perissa · Perivolos · Kamari · Vlychada · Monolithos · Red Beach · White Beach · Agios Georgios · Agia Paraskevi

Sites and landmarks: Akrotiri · Ancient Thira · Akrotiri Lighthouse · Nea Kameni · Palia Kameni · Thirasia · Athinios Port

All our tours: All Santorini tours · Full day tour · Sightseeing tour · Personalised tour · North part tour · Horse riding · South part tour · Sunset tour · Shore excursion · Caldera tour · Food experience · Wine tour · Historical tour · Small group tour

Planning and services: Famous sights tour · Private transfers · Transfers to Oia and Finikia · Transfers to other villages · Villages of Santorini · History of Santorini · Tours near you · Languages we guide in · Food and fun tours · Gay friendly tours · Our tour buses · Daily tours · Day tours · FAQ · Gallery · Tour photo gallery · About us · Contact · Blog