Objects
of interest, nice places and villages
Medieval town
The medieval town (or the old town) is a living monument. It is a well-preserved centre where many Rhodians live and work. The medieval town developed around a fortress that was most probably built after the earthquake of 515.
The medieval town was divided into two parts:
The Kollakio to the north, including the Street of the Knights, the Palace of the Grand Master and the hospital (today a museum).
The Chora to the south, with Socrates Street (the old market) with Suleiman's mosque and the clock tower. Hora was the area for the bourgeois.
The Street of the Knights
A tour
of the medieval town:
Starting from Mandraki (the main harbour of Rhodes for almost 2.500 years) and passing through Eleftheria Gate (the Gate of Freedom) at Symi Square, the first building you see is the Inn of the Tongue (expellee organisation) of Auvergne (1507). In front of this building are the ruins of a Temple of Aphrodite, dating from the 3rd century BC.
To the right of Symi Square, is the Municipal Art Gallery, with works by Modern Greek painters.
Just a little further is Argyrokastro Square with a fine fountain in its centre and one of the oldest and most beautiful buildings in the medieval town - the old arsenal of the Knights - which today houses the Folklore Museum.
Leaving Argyrokastro Square, you arrive at the Street of the Knights on the right side. Immediately after are the Museum Square, (Platia Mousiou) the Inn of the Tongue of England, (1443) and the old hospital of the Knights (1489), which today houses the Archaeological Museum. It has been used as a museum since 1914 and has gradually accumulated many important archaeological finds.
The Street of the Knights is the best-preserved street from the period of the Knights and leads uphill to the Grand Master's Palace. It is a cobbled street, lined on both sides with the headquarters of the various Tongues of the Order.
Palace of
the Grand Masters
At the top of the Street of the Knights and opposite the church of St. John stood the imposing Palace of the Grand Masters, so well built that not even the siege of 1522 damaged it. The Palace was demolished by an explosion of gunpowder, which the Turks had stored in its basement in 1856. The building was rebuilt early in the 20th century in strict accordance with the plans of the original building (80 meters long and 75 meters broad). It was finished in 1940.
The floors are notable for their marvellous mosaics from the Hellenistic and Roman periods, which were brought here from Kos. The statues, which stand in the inner courtyard, are also from the same periods.
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| The clock-tower | The Ahmet Hafuz Turkish library |
If you follow Orfeos St. from the Grand Master's Palace in southerly direction, you can visit the clock tower (built after the earthquake of 1851) and the Mosque of Suleiman (1808). The Ahmet Hafuz Turkish library (1794) is on the other side of the street. Before you is Socrates St., the street with the most commercial activity in the medieval town.
Socrates
Street at 8 o'clock in the morning
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