Old Town of Rhodes: In the Footsteps of the Knights

The Old Town of Rhodes is the longest continuously inhabited medieval town in Europe. Walk through the Gate of Amboise or the Gate of the Virgin and you step into a walled city where 2,400 years of history are stacked in layers — ancient Greek foundations beneath Byzantine churches beneath the great halls of the Knights of St John beneath Ottoman mosques beneath the balconied houses of the Sephardic Jewish quarter. The massive fortifications that the Knights built to withstand Ottoman siege remain virtually complete, enclosing a living city of 6,000 residents where laundry hangs across lanes that Crusader knights once patrolled in armour. This is not a museum or a reconstruction — it is a medieval city that never stopped being a city, and its extraordinary state of preservation earned it UNESCO World Heritage status in 1988.

The Knights of St John: Builders of a Fortress City

The Knights Hospitaller — the Order of St John of Jerusalem — arrived on Rhodes in 1309 after being expelled from the Holy Land. Over the next two centuries, they transformed the existing Byzantine town into one of the most formidable fortified cities in the medieval world. The Knights were organised by language into seven (later eight) Langues — national groupings that each defended a specific section of the walls and maintained their own headquarters, or Inn, along the Street of the Knights. The Langue of France, the Langue of England, the Langue of Provence — each left its coat of arms carved into the stone of its Inn, and these buildings still stand, remarkably intact, along the most atmospheric medieval street in the Mediterranean.

The Palace of the Grand Master, at the highest point of the Old Town, was the administrative heart of the Knights' state and their last refuge in case of siege. The original medieval palace was largely destroyed by an ammunition explosion in 1856, and the current building is an Italian reconstruction from the 1930s — controversial among purists but undeniably impressive, with its massive towers, mosaic floors brought from Kos, and halls that convey the scale of the Knights' ambition. Below the palace, the Street of the Knights (Odos Ippoton) descends in a straight line toward the harbour — a 200-metre cobbled lane flanked by the stone Inns of the Langues, so perfectly preserved that it remains the most complete medieval street in Europe.

Ottoman Rhodes: Mosques, Baths, and Eastern Layers

In 1522, after a six-month siege involving an estimated 100,000 Ottoman troops against 7,000 defenders, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent finally took Rhodes. The surviving Knights were permitted to leave with honour — they eventually settled in Malta — and Rhodes began four centuries of Ottoman rule that added an entirely new cultural layer to the medieval city. The Ottomans converted the Knights' churches into mosques, added minarets to the skyline, and built the public bathhouses, fountains, and covered markets that give the Old Town much of its atmospheric character today.

The Mosque of Suleiman, built shortly after the conquest at the top of the Old Town, dominates the skyline with its rose-coloured minaret — currently under restoration but still the most prominent Ottoman landmark. The Mustafa Pasha Mosque in the commercial district remains more accessible. Perhaps the finest Ottoman survival is the Turkish Bath (Hamam) on Plateia Arionos, a functioning 16th-century bathhouse where you can still bathe beneath the star-pierced domed ceiling exactly as Ottoman citizens did. The Old Town's commercial streets — Sokratous Street in particular — retain the Ottoman bazaar layout, with small shops opening directly onto narrow lanes in a pattern unchanged since the 16th century.

The Jewish Quarter: Memory and Absence

The southeastern section of the Old Town was home to one of the oldest Jewish communities in the Diaspora — Romaniote Jews who had lived on Rhodes since antiquity, later joined by Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain in 1492. By the early 20th century, the Jewish Quarter was a thriving neighbourhood of over 4,000 people, with synagogues, schools, and a distinct Ladino-speaking culture that blended Spanish, Hebrew, Greek, and Turkish influences.

In July 1944, the German occupation forces deported the entire Jewish community — 1,673 men, women, and children — to Auschwitz. Only 151 survived. The Square of the Jewish Martyrs (Plateia Evreon Martyron), with its seahorse fountain and memorial plaques, marks the centre of the quarter. The Kahal Shalom Synagogue, built in 1577 and the oldest surviving synagogue in Greece, has been restored and houses a small museum documenting the community's history and destruction. Walking through the Jewish Quarter today — its beautiful houses now mostly inhabited by others, its streets quieter than the commercial centre — is one of the most moving experiences in the Old Town, a reminder that medieval cities carry grief as well as grandeur.

The Fortifications: Walls, Moats, and Gates

The defensive walls of Rhodes are among the most impressive surviving medieval fortifications anywhere in the world. Extending 2.5 km around the Old Town, with a depth of up to 12 metres and towers spaced at regular intervals, they were designed to withstand the most powerful siege technology of the 15th and 16th centuries — including the earliest cannon. The Knights continuously upgraded the walls as artillery technology evolved, adding massive bastions, angled outworks, and a dry moat up to 30 metres wide that could be swept by crossfire from the walls above.

The best way to appreciate the fortifications is to walk the moat walk — a path that follows the bottom of the dry moat along the western and southern walls, looking up at the sheer stone faces that attackers would have had to scale under fire. The walk passes beneath several of the original gates: the Gate of Amboise (the most dramatic, a double-towered entrance approached by a bridge across the moat), the Gate of St Athanasios, and the Marine Gate on the harbour side. The walls themselves can be walked on top during guided tours organised by the archaeological service — a perspective that reveals both the engineering genius of the Knights and the extent of the city they were protecting.

Weather, Seasons, and Visiting

Rhodes enjoys one of the sunniest climates in Europe — over 300 days of sunshine annually — but the Old Town's dense stone construction creates its own microclimate. Summer (June-August) brings temperatures of 30-36°C, but the thick medieval walls, narrow shaded lanes, and stone buildings keep the interior significantly cooler than the open streets of the modern town. Morning and evening exploration is ideal, with midday retreat to a courtyard cafe or the beach.

Spring (April-May) is the finest season for exploring the Old Town. Temperatures range from 18 to 26°C, the light is warm without being harsh, and the crowds that pack the Street of the Knights in July are absent. Bougainvillea blooms purple and red over medieval doorways, and the moat walk is at its most pleasant. Autumn (September-October) offers similar advantages with the bonus of warm sea swimming — water temperatures remain above 24°C into November. Winter (November-March) is mild (10-16°C) with occasional rain. The Old Town in winter is atmospheric and nearly empty, its stone lanes echoing with your footsteps alone — the most contemplative time to visit.

Living in the Past: Practical Exploration

The Old Town is best explored on foot — no other method is possible in most of its lanes, which are too narrow for vehicles. Enter through any of the historic gates and allow yourself to get lost; the town is small enough that you will always find your way back to a landmark. The main commercial axis runs along Sokratous Street from the harbour toward the Mosque of Suleiman, while the most atmospheric residential lanes are in the Jewish Quarter and the streets south of the Palace of the Grand Master.

Accommodation within the walls ranges from simple pensions to exquisite boutique hotels in restored medieval mansions — sleeping inside the Old Town transforms the experience, as the lanes after dark, lit by wall-mounted lanterns and emptied of day-trippers, reveal a medieval atmosphere that daylight obscures. Dining options include tourist-oriented restaurants on the main lanes and far better tavernas on quieter squares, serving fresh seafood, Rhodian meze, and local wines from vineyards that have been producing since the Knights' era. The Old Town is reached from Rhodes airport (20 minutes) and the modern town (10-minute walk from Mandraki harbour). Allow a minimum of two days for proper exploration — one for the Knights' quarter, palace, and fortifications, and one for the Ottoman and Jewish quarters, the commercial streets, and the moat walk.