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The Medieval City of Rhodes Long History
has an impact on culture and architectureWe checked and found that no cruise ships were to be in town on Friday so made plans to go to the Palace of the Grand Master on that day to avoid the crowds. The Palace was originally a Byzantine fortress (7
th C AD) but during the 14
th C. became the administrative headquarters of the Order of Knights. An explosion in 1856 destroyed much of the Palace so at the end of the 1930’s the Italians rebuilt it to become the home base of Mussolini, the Italian Commander.
We arrived early to the Palace which worked out well as there were very few people there so we could easily wander through the rooms without a crowd. We were surprised that they don’t have audio guides for offer, but fortunately we had downloaded an audio-guide to listen to off our phones. We were very glad we did as it told how much of what we were seeing was a result of renovations that were done when the Italians controlled Rhodes. They captured the island in 1912 and demolished houses that had built next to the walls during the Ottoman occupation. One of the things they concentrated on was making the Palace
The Avenue of Knights With a Steady Incline
toward the Grand Palace of Knights of St. John into a site that would be a place that people would come to visit. They removed as much as they could of any Ottoman additions and had items brought in from Italy to make the Palace more attractive. They were not interested at all in keeping to the historic significance of the Palace, it was more important to have it aesthetically pleasing to the visitor. There are many rooms in the Palace that have intricate mosaics covering the floors. Through the audio-tape we learned that none of these were original to the Palace, but were brought in from a different island, Kos, and installed in the Palace in no particular order - just where they fit the best. In this way, you would see mosaics in the same room that were done in a wide variety of centuries! Similarly, in the outside courtyard there are numerous statutes. Only problem with them is that they were of Roman statesmen that were moved here from Italy. They arrived as headless statutes so they added random heads, not even matching the body of the statute – they were to be just visual pleasing for anyone entering the palace. We had to laugh that
Ironic View from Near the Palace Toward a Mosque
this previously led to a Church before the Ottomans the Palace was full of examples like these so those that were not listening to these facts and were only reading the signboards that described the mosaic for example, would not have known that they really did not belong in the Palace.
They did have a nice exhibit of many of the artifacts that have been found here which showed the amount of trade that came through this area. Numerous coins from a variety of countries, glassware, pottery and jewelry all aid in the identification of timing and volume of interactions going on between Rhodes and other countries in the area.
After walking around for the morning in the Palace, it was time for a light lunch of salad and hummus. It was the perfect way to have a meal and give us time to sit and take a load off our feet – We find walking slow such as through the Palace always is harder than a normal walking pace – guess that is our age reminding us that we aren’t as young as we used to be. After our meal, we spend a few more hours wandering around more of the medieval walled city of Rhodes.
We thoroughly enjoy taking a walk down alleyways we come across and finding places to explore such as the Muslim Library. It was open so we took time to look. We learned that Hafiz Ahmed Aga had been promoted to one of the highest positions in the Ottoman Imperial Court. Being a person of wealth however, did not make him forget his island of birth, Rhodes. He established in 1793 a library for Muslims by providing almost 2000 Arabic manuscripts covering a wide variety of subjects. As all items were in Arabic, the library was for all literate Muslims in the old town of Rhodes. He felt it was also important to educate the children and as a result the two librarians that were to work here also had to teach the children the Kur ‘an as well as Arabic. It was important enough; the librarians were to receive a separate salary for teaching. He also understood that the manuscripts were valuable enough that they could be stolen so he also hired two guards at the door. The head librarian had to take an annual inventory of the holdings and if anything was missing that librarian was held
responsible for replacing it. It sounds like he worked out the perfect system, but it did not completely work as there are currently only 1,256 volumes of the original 1,995. As they have a very thorough list of the inventory, the current effort is to replace those missing with a printed version even though the original is lost forever. The gardens that surround the library were stunning and was a peaceful place to sit and enjoy.
The archeological museum was the next place of interest we wished to visit the next day so will include that in the next blog post. We are glad we made it to the Medieval City of Rhodes as there is so much to learn here.
If not interested in the various periods of control of the City of Rhodes, you can stop here – otherwise below is a quick overview of the development of the city over the centuries.
As mentioned earlier Rhodes has seen a variety of people occupying this location. As a result, we were able to view the Jewish section that had been bombed out during WWII, numerous Mosques complete with minarets from the Ottoman occupation and Catholic
A Few of the Numerous Coats of Arms
Seen at the Palace and inserted on the Walls Churches thanks to the Italian occupation. If you look closely, you can also see some Christian symbols covering Arabic writing again showing the various powers overtaking others as well as Arabic writing covering the Christian symbols from the period of the Knights of St. John. In fact, this island was first inhabited back in the Neolithic Period (4000 BC) and the city of Rhodes was formed in 408 BC and prospered for three centuries with sea trade, shipbuilding and an open-minded political system. Rhodes was under the Roman Empire control starting in 164 BC and continued as a learning center for art and science until the 1
st C. AD. During the Byzantine period many churches were added and the city became an important military base. The Arabs came into the Mediterranean in the 7
th C. AD and attached Rhodes and occupied it for several decades. In the centuries that followed some of the fortified walls were added and the city was divided into the military zone and the other for “the people” showing the difference in status of the times. The Knights of the Order of St. John was established to take care of the poor, sick or injured pilgrims
to the Holy Land, but developed into a military unit which acquired a large amount of land. They founded their headquarters on Rhodes. During their time here they expanded the fortifications and set up one hospital, one palace and many churches. The area prospered while they were there with trade continuing and from what is known there was cooperation between the Knights and the local people here. In 1522 AD the Ottomans captured the city and with their control they built mosques, public baths and new homes for themselves. The Greeks were forced out of the walled city and had to resettle outside. With the Ottomans in control Rhodes was the financial center for the sale of agricultural products within the interior of the island and a few other smaller islands nearby. Fortunately, the Ottomans converted many of the buildings during the period of the Knights by adding Ottoman features such as adding baths in the back of buildings and wooden enclosed balconies on the front. In this way, the architecture of the area continued as a combination of the two styles. Unfortunately, after the Ottoman Empire declined in the 19
th C. the town was neglected and with numerous earthquakes
A Few Architectural Details in the Palace
many added during renovations by Venetian architects the city went into disrepair. Italians captured the island in 1912. When they arrived, they demolished the houses that had been built in the sides of the walls. They did preserve the remains from the Knights period and removed as many of the Ottoman additions as they could. The Palace was restored by major renovations and added extensive infrastructure of roads, electricity and addition of a port which transformed the city. Unfortunately, when they did the renovations to the Palace and other buildings, they had no interest in saving any of the historical history and instead only were concerned with the visual beauty of the interiors that they designed. WWII created its damage with taking many human lives and destroying many buildings here. Fortunately, in 1960 the Medieval City was designated as a protected monument and it was further designated a World Heritage City by UNESCO in 1988 which helps preserve it for those of us to learn from.
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