Rhodes Old Town

Rhodes was founded as a planned city in 408 BC. In 1309 the Knights Hospitaller of St John took the island and over two centuries fortified the town into one of the strongest bastions of the eastern Mediterranean, building the Palace of the Grand Master, the Hospital of the Knights and the national inns along the Street of the Knights. In 1522 Suleiman the Magnificent besieged the city, and the Knights surrendered and left early in 1523.

Under Ottoman rule, which lasted until 1912, several churches were converted into mosques and new mosques, baths and houses were added. The Suleymaniye Mosque, named after the conquering sultan, was built soon after the conquest and rebuilt to the original design in 1808; its prayer hall is crowned by a large central dome. It was restored between 1988 and 2005 and is currently closed for regular worship pending further work, opening only on special occasions. The Italians, who ruled from 1912 to 1943, rebuilt the Palace of the Grand Master in 1937 to 1940 after it had been wrecked by a gunpowder explosion in 1856. UNESCO inscribed the Medieval City of Rhodes as a World Heritage Site in 1988, citing both its Gothic and its Ottoman buildings.

Thousands of people still live within the walls, and the old town mixes family homes, churches, Ottoman-era mosques, a synagogue, workshops and shops. The Ottoman mosques, fountains and baths are part of the city's layered heritage alongside its churches. Visitors should dress modestly in churches and mosques and respect residents' privacy in the narrow residential lanes.