Rhodes Scholar

 

Today I am revisiting the island of Rhodes.Our visit last fall was crowded and hurried, and although there was history magic all around, I haven't taken time to process what I saw until today. Thanks to a couple of hours this afternoon with a new history by John Julius Norwich (The Four Princes, 2016) I have fallen under the spell of the city and the time, and have returned to my photos - aided by other sites and contributors - to delve more deeply into what I saw, and make more meaning. 

We arrived in Rhodes by ship before 8am, a rainbow floating above the medieval walls of the UNESCO world heritage city. After the usual uber-efficient ship to shore shuffling, we made our way by foot to the 14th century D'Amboise Gates leading to the Grand Master's Palace just inside.

We were kept waiting for 15 minutes or so, as a movie shoot was taking place inside. Not a problem as the views were pretty amazing. Later I learned that it was The Raja Saab a piece of cinematic horror/comedy sure to last as long as these walls, that deprived us of ten minutes inside the walls on this tightly timed dance that is a guided tour. Ah well, maybe I'll catch the movie somewhere. 

What we were standing on was a drawbridge over a moat, now a linear park I could have spent hours in. Among its attractions were neat stacks of cannonballs used with great effectiveness by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent's Ottoman forces in their 1522 assault and eventual capture of the site. 

The residents of the walled palace were Knights - the stuff of video games - but real enough. This is the D'Amboise Gate, considered the most historically significant among the ancient gates of the 1309 CE walls. This gate was named for that Grand Master, led directly to his Palace and was a key defensive structure in those challenging times. Above the gate is the coat of arms of the legendary Knights Hospitaller and D'Amboise. A bit of green accentuates  the living history. 

This site features all of the gates.

How about those Knights? Again, too much to go into here, but I'll put down a bit of what I am learning, so it doesn't disappear like my glasses and that crossword I was working on. 

Think back to the Crusades. Too far? There were different branches of monk-knights from many countries who came into being as protectors of pilgrims to the Holy Land. We're most familiar with the Knights Templar (who became fabulously wealthy and fell afoul of the French king in 1307) and the Knights Hospitaller, or order of St. John (who provided care to poor and sick pilgrims.) 

It's this latter group whose sometime home we visited on Rhodes. (I say 'sometime' because eventually they were defeated by Ottoman invaders, and relocated to Malta.) The Christian Knights were well-organized, governed by a Grand Master, and answerable only to the Pope.

And for some of the atrocities they committed over time against non-Christians, they are answerable to a higher power.

The marvellously crenellated medieval castle was built in 1309, when the Knights Hospitaller conquered Rhodes, and reworked the structures on the site.  I read it's one of the few examples of Gothic architecture in Greece. What they don't tell you is that you're looking at a facsimile. Of the 14th century Palace of the Grand Master only sections of main floor rooms and some of the fortifications remained after a gunpowder explosion destroyed much of the palace in 1856. 

Later, under Italian rule (1912-1945) Ottoman structures that had been added were removed, and a medieval architecture expert led the rebuilding of the palace and the nearby Street of the Knights. 

Here's the story from the official website.

 

These photos were taken as we travelled down the Street of the Knights, on our way to the Sea Gate through which we exited on our way back to the pier. I did my best to capture intriguing visual details along this, one of the best preserved medieval streets in Europe for later study (that would be today) while keeping up with my group and avoiding a mishap on the diabically slippery cobblestone streets.

Here's the official site again. The Street of the Knights was lined with the fine homes, or 'auberges,' each belonging to a 'langue' -" a regional division within the Knights Hospitaller representing a shared language, culture and administrative identity" including Provence, Auvergne, Aragon, Castile and Leon, Italy, France, Germany and England (until Henry VIII changed everything.) An absolutely fascinating bit of history. 

The building to the left is the Hospital of the Knights Hospitaller; it now houses the Archeological Museum. This is a wonderfully informative site - ViaGallica.com (it'll ask you to disconnect your ad blocker.)

Hope I can save it, and all these other links, helpful for reliving the walking tour and learning more about what we saw that day. If you're reading this,  you might enjoy clicking on one or two.

Perky little walking tour I enjoyed taking with the walkers- their curiousity and the photo captures that resulted are delightful

Palace of the Grand Master Palace Highlights official site. Tickets, anyone? Great photos of spots we didn't have time for.

I like this Armchair Traveller video, should you rather listen than read. She does a terrific job of explaining the revolving door of history on the island of Rhodes (the auto-generated captions struggled though, cringeworthy.)

Rob Coldwell's video gives attention to the emblems on the walls that identify the Knights of each country. Incidentally, the video describes the walk uphill from the hospital to the Palace of the Grand Master. We entered from a different gate, and walked downhill!