Rhodes
Castello The Palace of the Grand Master
The palace of the Grand Master, or Castello is built at the highest
point of the medieval city, to the north-west, and its volumes
dominate the city and its harbor. It was a strong structure,
indissolubly linked with the fortifications, and played an active
role in the defense of the city forming the last refuge of the
population in the event of the city falling to the enemy.
The palace of the Grand Master is a roughly square building (dim:
80x75 m) designed around a large courtyard (dim: ca. 50x40 m). Built
at the end of the 7th c., to act as the citadel of the Early
Byzantine "fortress", it continued to play this role throughout the
Byzantine period and the period of the knights of St. John
(1309-1522). The building was modified before the knights
established themselves on the island; from the first quarter of the
14th c.
Knights of Rhodes
the
Knights of Rhodes began to
repair the Byzantine citadel and convert it into the residence of
the Grand Master and administrative centre of their state.
The main entrance is in the south facade, flanked by two imposing
towers. The west facade is pierced by a gate, in front of which
rises a tall, square tower, probably the work of the Grand Master
Pierre d' Aubusson (1476-1503).
On the north side there are underground rooms that served as
storerooms; and it was probably in these that part of the civilian
population took refuge in the event of an enemy attack, The ground
floor was occupied by small and large vaulted rooms, set around a
square courtyard, which were used as ancillary rooms. In about the
middle of the 19th c., the first floor collapsed completely, and
very little of it survived until 1937, and the beginning of
"restoration" work, which involved major and frequently arbitrary
interventions in the structure.
On the first floor were various official rooms, such as the "Great
Council Chamber" and the dining room, as well as the private
quarters of the Grand Master, which were commonly known as "Margaritae",
During the period of Italian rule, a chapel was built to the right
of the monumental marble staircase leading up to the first floor, In
it was erected a bronze statue of Saint Nicholas, a copy of the work
of that name by Donatello, in Bari. Floor mosaics of late
Hellenistic, Roman and Early Christian times have been laid in many
of the rooms on the first floor, most of them taken from buildings
on Kos. During the period of Turkish rule, the palace was used as a
prison, and it continued to have this function under the Italians,
until the decision was taken to "restore" the building.
Two major permanent exhibitions may be visited in the ground-floor
rooms: on the north side, the exhibition entitled "The city of
Rhodes from its foundation (408/7 BC) to the Roman period" and
on the south-west side, next to the chapel, the exhibition ''Rhodes
from the 4th c. AD to its capture by the Turks (1522)".
Rhodes History
Please visit Rhodes
Photo Album by Verena Struppert
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