Laconia or Lakonia (Greek: Λακωνία, Lakonía, [lakoˈni.a]) is a historical and administrative region of Greece located on the southeastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula.

The stalactite cave, Dirou, a major tourist attraction, is located south of Areopolis in the southwest of Laconia.

Evidence of Neolithic settlement in southern Laconia has been found during excavations of the Alepotrypa cave site.

[14] In classical Greece, Laconia was Spartan territory but from the 4th century BC onward Sparta lost control of various ports, towns and areas.

Two of them, the Melingoi and the Ezeritai, who settled in parts of Laconia, survived the subsequent Byzantine reconquest and re-Hellenization of the Peloponnese, and are attested until the late Middle Ages.

By the mid-14th century, this evolved into the Despotate of the Morea, held by the last Greek ruling dynasty, the Palaiologoi.

The capital of the Despotate, Mystras, was a major site of the Palaiologan Renaissance, the last flowering of Byzantine culture.

With the exception of a 30-year interval of Venetian rule, Laconia remained under Ottoman control until the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence of 1821.

In early 2006, flooding ruined olive and citrus crops as well as properties and villages along the Eurotas river.

In the summer 2006, a fire devastated a part of the Mani Peninsula, ruining forests, crops, and numerous villages.