Day 18 The Island of Rhodes
This island has had a truly amazing history. In ancient times it was a powerful independent kingdom then came under Greek control, then Roman, then Byzantine control and around 1300 was passed to the Knights of St John of Jerusalem (Knights Hospitallers) who built a massive fortress and a powerful fleet for the protection of Southern Mediterranean sea routes from the Turks.
The Knights of Rhodes as they came to be known, lost their fortress to a Turkish siege in 1523 and moved to Malta where they became known as the Knights of Malta before Napoleon tossed them out.
The locals tell a story of how the Knights lost their fortress in Rhodes. Apparently, a disgruntled knight who had lost the election for Grand Master of the Order, secretly stole all the fortress’s supplies, including large stocks of gunpowder, and hid these in a secret chamber under the Chapel which, along with the Grand Master’s residence, stood on the top of a hill in the middle of the fortress.
The Knights, finally realising they were almost out of supplies, arranged a surrender and left the island. The Turks took over and converted the Chapel to a Mosque by demolishing the Chapel’s spire and erecting a minaret which, as was traditional, was topped with a metal crescent. A few years into the Turkish rule the minaret was struck by lightning which ignited the forgotten gunpowder store resulting in a large explosion which levelled the Mosque and the Grand Master’s palace.
Over the next four hundred years the island gradually declined as the result of pestilence, emigration, and harsh Turkish administration. In 1912, the Italians, feeling they should have an Empire like other European powers, took Rhodes from the now enfeebled Ottoman Empire.
The amount of money the Italians spent on buildings here is truly amazing. On the top of the highest point on the Island, where the Greeks had built their temples and the Byzantines had built a Monastery, the Italians did archeological digs, preserved the Greek temple’s remnants and rebuilt the Byzantian Church and Monastery.
Up here they also created a long path with outdoor Stations of the Cross leading to the highest point where they built a giant cross. The Italians themselves had to blow this cross up in the early stages of WW2 as it served as a perfect aiming mark for RAF bombers attacking the Italian airfield in the valley below.
The most amazing example of the Italian building spree here was the reconstruction of the Grand Master’s Palace (which you will remember got totally destroyed four paragraphs back). The Italians had the original plans for the exterior of the building but nothing of its interior.
So they set to work. It was designed to be a palace for the King of Italy when he deigned to visit his Rhodian possession. The Palace was finished in 1940. The place is huge, the workmanship is stunning and the King never got there.
The feature that impressed me most was the floors, many of which where transplanted mosaic tile floors from ancient Roman buildings.
Walking down to the Old City from the Palace, you go down the Laneway of Knights. The Knights of Rhodes drew their members from all the countries of Christendom and each group lived with their fellow countrymen. So along this Lane was a house for the English Knights, the Spanish Knights, the German Knights etc. The French being the French still own their one.
The French house has unique gargoyles. This arose from an incident of a ship sailing from Egypt to Rome which called in at Rhodes. This ship amongst other things had a baby crocodile on board which was a gift for the Pope and it managed to escape. Over time the crocodile grew in size and terrified the locals who were convinced it was a dragon. Finally a French knight went out and slew it much to the delight of all concerned, excepting of course the crocodile. The gargoyles record this event.
We wandered around the Old Town which is mostly a pretty frenetic shopping district. We found a lovely spot for a long lunch and then made our way slowly back to the ship.
Just in case you are wondering about the current status of Rhodes, under the Allied peace treaty with Italy in 1947, the island was awarded to Greece.
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