Rhodes, Greece
April 1986






Page 2


As I mentioned before, the hotel was located alongside the coastal road that leads to the old city with the same name; Rhodes. Walking along this road to Rhodes takes about half an hour. It leads to the Northern tip of the island that has some wider sandy beaches. These circle around that Northern tip and were really crowded at the time. We were more interested in the Medieval old town.

 




Some history...

The Knights Hospitaller of St. John captured Rhodes in 1309. In the Old Town, where they established their administrative center, there was already a fortified Byzantine settlement occupying 175,000 square meters. They remained here for over two centuries, between 1309 and 1522. During this period the island of Rhodes was a sovereign state under the rule of the Knights of the Order of St John. It minted its own currency and boasted a commercial port to rival Venice, acting as a gateway between Europe and the Holy Land. The medieval city of Rhodes, contained within the fortifications was built during the Crusaders rule. It is today the largest active medieval town in Europe and is protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

 




 




The Order of St John (the Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem) was founded during the First Crusade as a monastic order with a medical mission. Its monks ran a hospital for Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem, and were also known as the Hospitallers. Under the threat of Muslim invasion, the brotherhood became increasingly more militarized and began to provide armed escorts for pilgrimages. They eventually became a multinational elite fighting force answering only to the Pope.

 




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The Ixia coastline

The Ixia coastline



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Fortifications

Fortifications

The map of the fortifications is made by Aga Khan (IT) - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0
 




They brought the most skilled craftsmen and master builders to transform the existing former Byzantine citadel into what is today one of the finest surviving examples of Gothic defensive architecture. The surviving walls run almost 4 kilometers and encircle the Old Town. They are 12 meters thick each and sometimes they are either doubled or tripled. And if that was not enough, the town is also surrounded by a moat. These days the moat does not contain any water.

 




We enter The old town through the gate of St. Paul on the North-West side, South of the Mandraki harbor. We walk over pavement made of large slabs of stone. These have been worn down by many footsteps of many visitors that came through here over many centuries.

I can remember that the ground floor facades of the buildings that house shops are modern with a lot of glass. But when I raised my head and looked up to the second floor or higher, I looked back in time eight hundred years. These parts of the buildings had not changed over time. The houses were made of large blocks of sandstone that have withstood time. The width of many of these medieval streets is no more than fifteen to twenty feet across.

 




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Cruise ship at the port of Rhodes

Cruise ship at the port of Rhodes



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Mandraki Port of Rhodes

Mandraki Port of Rhodes

 














and welcome!