Rhodes Old Town

Rhodes Old Town: Medieval Europe Preserved by Accident

Rhodes Old Town is enclosed by 4 km of medieval walls built by the Knights Hospitaller, a crusading military order that controlled the island from 1309 until the Ottoman conquest of 1522. The walls were not just effective enough to hold off the Ottomans for six months in one siege; they were also durable enough that most of them are still standing. UNESCO listed the site as a World Heritage property in 1988.

The peculiarity of Rhodes Old Town is that it remained continuously inhabited after the Ottoman conquest and through Greek independence in the 19th century and beyond. It was never abandoned, never allowed to become a ruin, and never comprehensively rebuilt. What you walk through today is genuinely layered: Crusader street plan, Ottoman mosques built on medieval churches, Greek Orthodox additions, Italian modifications from the Fascist-era occupation (1912-1943), and a population of around 6,000 people who actually live there.

The Street of the Knights

The Street of the Knights (Ippoton) runs from the harbour to the Palace of the Grand Master and is one of the best-preserved medieval streets in Europe. Each building along it was the Inn (hostelry) of a different national grouping of Knights, and the facades are largely 15th-century Crusader Gothic. The street is paved with smooth stone and is remarkably quiet even in summer compared to the surrounding tourist areas.

Palace of the Grand Master

Built in the 14th century, blown up by an accidental gunpowder explosion in 1856, and rebuilt by the Italians in the 1930s as a summer palace for Mussolini (who never actually used it), the Palace of the Grand Master is an interesting object lesson in reconstruction. The exterior is largely authentic; the interior is Italian-colonial with black-and-white Roman floor mosaics relocated from Kos to Rhodes to impress a dictator who did not come. Entry is around 8 euros.

The Archaeological Museum

The museum occupies the medieval Hospital of the Knights, a beautiful 15th-century building with a two-storey courtyard. The collection includes Hellenistic grave stelae, classical sculpture from Rhodes and Kos, and the famous Aphrodite of Rhodes, a 1st-century BC marble figure found at a bathing complex. It is better than you would expect from a relatively small island and worth 90 minutes.

The Jewish Quarter

The Ovriaki (Jewish Quarter) in the southeastern corner of the Old Town is the least-visited part of the walled city and easily the most interesting for anyone who has seen the main monuments. The Kahal Shalom Synagogue, built in 1577, is the oldest functioning synagogue in Greece. Before 1944, around 1,700 Sephardic Jews lived in this quarter, descendants of those expelled from Spain in 1492. In 1944, the German occupation deported them to Auschwitz; fewer than 200 survived. The quarter’s population never recovered. Walking through it now, with empty buildings and quiet lanes, carries a weight that the more touristed streets do not.

The synagogue is open to visitors in summer (small donation expected). Plateia ton Evreon Martiron (Square of the Jewish Martyrs) nearby has a memorial to the community.

Food

The Old Town has a predictable tourist restaurant strip near the Hippocrates Square (Plateia Ipokratous) that is largely mediocre and overpriced. The better strategy is to walk deeper into the residential lanes toward the Byzantine clock tower area, where a handful of tavernas serve to the local population. Dinoris Fish Taverna on Museum Square is a local institution for fresh fish (expect 25-40 euros per person with wine). For something cheaper, the market near the Kantini area has produce stalls and small shops.

Ouzo and local retsina are the correct drinks here. The Dodecanese produces some decent wines, but the island’s signature is the sweet wine from Lindos.

Crowds and Timing

July and August are overwhelming in the tourist sections, with cruise ships disgorging several thousand people at a time through the gates. The walled city is large enough that the Jewish Quarter and the residential lanes around the Byzantine walls remain relatively quiet, but Ippoton and the harbour area are genuinely unpleasant at midday.

May, June, September, and October are substantially better. In October, many restaurants remain open but the cruise ships taper off, the temperature is comfortable (20-25 degrees), and the light is exceptional.

The walls themselves can be walked on a section between the D’Amboise Gate and the Koskinou Gate (entrance at the Grand Master Palace), giving elevated views over the city rooflines. This is free and almost no one does it.