Rhodes is an outstanding example of an architectural ensemble illustrating the significant period of history in which a military hospital order founded during the Crusades survived in the eastern Mediterranean area in a context characterized by an obsessive fear of siege. The fortifications of Rhodes, a ‘Frankish’ town long considered to be impregnable, exerted an influence throughout the eastern Mediterranean basin at the end of the Middle Ages.

With its Frankish and Ottoman buildings the old town of Rhodes is an important ensemble of traditional human settlement, characterized by successive and complex phenomena of acculturation. Contact with the traditions of the Dodecanese changed the forms of Gothic architecture, and building after 1523 combined vernacular forms resulting from the meeting of two worlds with decorative elements of Ottoman origin. All the built-up elements dating before 1912 have become vulnerable because of the evolution in living conditions and they must be protected as much as the great religious, civil and military monuments, the churches, monasteries, mosques, baths, palaces, forts, gates and ramparts.

From 1309 to 1523 Rhodes was occupied by the Knightly Order of St John of Jerusalem, who had lost their last stronghold in Palestine, St John of Acre, in 1291. They proceeded to transform the island capital into a fortified city able to withstand sieges as terrible as those led by the Sultan of Egypt in 1444 and Mehmet II in 1480. An anachronic vestige of the Crusades, Rhodes finally fell in 1522 after a six-month siege carried out by Suleyman II, heading forces reportedly numbering 100,000 men.

The medieval city is located within a wall 4 km long. It is divided according to the Western classical style, with the high town to the north and the lower town south-south-west. Originally separated from the town by a fortified wall, the high town (Collachium) was entirely built by the Knights Hospitallers who, following the dissolution of the Templars in 1312, became the strongest military order in all Christendom. The order was organized into seven ‘Tongues’, each having its own seat. The inns of the Tongues of Italy, France, Spain and Provence lined both sides of the principal east-west axis, the famous Street of the Knights, one of the finest testimonies to Gothic urbanism. Somewhat removed to the north, close to the site of the Knights’ first hospice, stands the Inn of Auvergne, whose facade bears the arms of Guy de Blanchefort, Grand Master from 1512 to 1513.

The original hospice was replaced in the 15th century by the Great Hospital, built between 1440 and 1489, on the south side of the Street of the Knights; today the building is used as the archaeological museum. Located north-west of the Collachium are the Grand Masters’ Palace and St John’s Church. At the far eastern end of the Street of the Knights, built against the wall, is St Mary’s Church, which the Knights transformed into a cathedral in the 15th century. The lower town is almost as dense with monuments as the Collachium. In 1522, with a population of 5,000, it was replete with churches, some of Byzantine construction.

After 1523, most were converted into Islamic mosques, like the Mosques of Soliman, Kavakli Mestchiti, Demirli Djami, Peial ed Din Djami, Abdul Djelil Djami, and Dolapli Mestchiti. Throughout the years, the number of palaces and charitable foundations multiplied in the south-south-east area: the Court of Commerce, the Archbishop’s Palace, the Hospice of St Catherine, and others. The ramparts of the medieval city, partially erected on the foundations of the Byzantine enclosure, were constantly maintained and remodeled between the 14th and 16th centuries under the Grand Masters Giovanni Battista degli Orsini (1467-76), Pierre d’Aubusson (1476-1505), Aiméry d’Amboise (1505-12), and Fabrizio del Carretto (1513-21). Artillery firing posts were the final features to be added. At the beginning of the 16th century, in the section of the Amboise Gate, which was built on the north-western angle in 1512, the curtain wall was 12 m thick with a 4 m high parapet pierced with gun holes.

The Experience

Once one of Rhodes’ ancient and important cities, Lindos grew to prosperity under the Knights of St. John. So much of medieval Lindos has survived that it has been declared a national landmark.No vehicles other than motorbikes, small delivery vans and the donkeys which carry tourists to the acropolis are allowed on the paved streets and little or no changes can be made to the buildings, many of which have survived since the 15th Century.

History

Lindos was founded by the Dorians led by the king Tlepolemus of Rhodes, who arrived in about the 10th century BC. It was one of six Dorian cities in the area known as the Dorian Hexapolis. The eastern location of Rhodes made it a natural meeting place between the Greeks and the Phoenicians, and by the 8th century Lindos was a major trading centre. Its importance declined after the foundation of the city of Rhodes in the late 5th century.

In classical times the acropolis of Lindos was dominated by the massive temple of Athena Lindia, which attained its final form in around 300 BC. In Hellenistic and Roman times the temple precinct grew as more buildings were added. In early medieval times these buildings fell into disuse, and in the 14th century they were partly overlaid by a massive fortress built on the acropolis by the Knights of St John to defend the island against the Ottomans

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What d

The springs of Kallithea have been known since ancient times. Rising in the eastern and central parts of the island of Rhodes, these legendary spa waters attract thousands of people every Year. Accompanied by their families, many hope to be cured of aliments by the healing water that spring from the rocks surrounding the bay of Kallithea.

The inhabitants of the island knew the therapeutic properties of the water and visited the area regularly. They stayed for some time at temporaty dwellings they constructed themselves near the springs ,in order to follow the traditional treatment that passed from generation to generetion through the ages.

One of the first works for the arrangement of the Bay regarded the construction of a quay for the approach of little ships and tourist vessels.The physsical features of the landscape ,the rocks ,the “Koupes”were preserved. The construction of the facilities began at the end of December 1928,by t the italian architect Pietro Lombardi. The complex was arranged in three levels:

From the main entrance,which was truly magnificent ,the visitor proceeded to a square open space ,with a circular fountaain and the stairs ,which follow the ground relief .The second entrance leands to the main stairway and is flanked by collumms that once supported a pergola covered with bougaivilea plants. The stairway leads to the portico, on the right and on the left to circular facilities housing the laboratories and the offices,and further ,to another stairway that ends, on the left and right,at the main Rotunda .

The buuilding has a dome,14 metters high elaborately ,decoreded and equipped with lozengeshaped blue glass windows,that provide lighting. Under the Dome ,the water of the spring flows from the six fountains into a ciclurar cistern.The Rotunda has four staired entrances. Tow inscriptions are incised onthe exterior and the interior part of the Building.

In 1930 the upper atrium was added and the open areas reached their final form. The archicectural features of the building are a fine combination of all the different stages that rhodian architecture went through.