At the upper end of the Street of the Knights, Rhodes gathers its medieval ambitions into a pair of formidable towers. Beyond them lies the Palace of the Grand Master: a courtyard, vaulted interiors and a succession of rooms whose apparent unity conceals several different histories. The building belongs to the fortified old town inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1988. It rewards a slower look than the familiar castle photograph suggests, particularly where medieval masonry meets the decorative choices of the twentieth century.
The Knights Hospitaller established themselves on Rhodes in 1309 and remained until the Ottoman conquest of 1522. Their palace combined the residence of the order’s leader with an administrative centre and a position in the city’s defensive system. Construction began in the early fourteenth century on the site associated with the earlier Byzantine acropolis. This was a working seat of authority, positioned within a larger fortified settlement, rather than an isolated country residence built simply to impress passing travellers.