Rhodes: the Old Town of the Knights of St John

Governed for two centuries by the Knights Hospitaller, Rhodes houses the largest inhabited medieval city in Europe, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The Old City, built by the Knights of Saint John, can be comfortably visited on foot within the medieval walls.

The Palace of the Grand Master, a fortress-residence of the Knights of Saint John, remains the most imposing medieval monument in the old city.

A short walk away, Street of the Knights, lined with ancient lodgings of the different nationalities of the knightly order, preserves its medieval character almost intact.

Moving toward the harbor, you visit the point where the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, once stood, now marked by two columns with a deer and a doe.

As evening arrives, Rhodes' Ottoman quarter, with its mosques and hammams, animates restaurants and artisan shops in the southern part of the old city.

The Colossus of Rhodes, a bronze statue of the god Helios standing over thirty meters tall, collapsed during an earthquake in 226 BC after standing for only fifty-six years, yet remains one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.

The medieval city of Rhodes, walled by the Knights Hospitaller, remains the largest inhabited medieval city in Europe, with over six thousand residents still living today inside the walls.