1309: A New Capital
1309–1522/23 › two centuries as the European capital of a multinational Order
In 1309 the Knights Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem — the Order's warrior monks — make Rhodes their new convent and, in effect, the European capital of a religious-military order drawn from across Latin Christendom. Nobility from France, Italy, Iberia, Germany, England and beyond serve under the Order's eight-pointed cross, settling along the ancient street that leads from the Palace to the port — the Street of the Knights — where each nationality builds its own assembly house.
A Renaissance Refuge
1453 › Constantinople falls, and its scholars sail west
After the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, deeply cultured intellectuals, artists and philosophers move to Rhodes, carrying with them the ideals of the Renaissance already flourishing in Byzantium. Kneaded together with western Renaissance currents arriving through the Order's own European Langues, this mentality of extroversion creates a distinctive blended Rhodian style, native to the island's own layered culture.
Government & Commerce
An elected Grand Master › minting coin, running a port
The Order is governed by an elected Grand Master, who mints the Order's own coinage. Under Hospitaller rule the port of Rhodes regains full international significance and activity. Pepper — the “black gold” of the Middle Ages — caviar, perfumes, luxury fabrics and carpets, first-class olive oil and wine, fine sugar, and soap are among the merchandise handled by the port. Latin, French, Italian and Greek, among other languages, are spoken and written across the city.
A Multi-Ethnic Fortress
Defending a fortified island › with a minimum of men and money
The Hospitaller Order-state stands as the triumph of a multi-ethnic society defending a fortified island with a minimum of men and money. The Knights' most lasting social innovation, however, lies not in military engineering but in medicine: rather than follow the medieval tradition of simply preparing the soul for death, they deliver medical care and rehabilitation independent of a patient's creed, sex, class or origin.
The True Legacy: Medicine
Logistics, hygiene, certification › medicine ahead of its age
The Order's ability to care for large numbers of patients through a dedicated logistics system, and standards of hygiene and disinfection worthy of comparison with today's, together with the promotion of medical study and the certification of higher and lower skills within the medical profession, revolutionise medicine in Europe — centred on the Great Hospital of the Knights, shown in the gallery below. The fruits of that commitment endure today in the substantial and effective medical and humanitarian work the Order's successor organisations still carry out throughout the world.
Photo gallery
Nineteen views › manuscript, fortification, palace, church, hospital and harbour
A Living Monument
1522, frozen in stone › UNESCO, 1944, and the restoration of 2000
The Medieval City of Rhodes is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the best-preserved, oldest and largest living medieval city in Europe — the only European walled town with its surrounding landscape maintained intact, effectively “frozen” at its 1522 state. During the Second World War the city was bombarded by the British Air Force and many of its monuments suffered damage. Fifteen years of restoration work were celebrated as complete in 2000, though conservation continues: the Medieval City is, at the time of writing, still being studied, restored, interpreted and visited.
Why Rhodes Matters
“Servire infirmis supremum imperium” (“To serve the sick is the supreme command” — the Order of St John's own motto.)
Rhodes matters, in the Hospitaller period, not for any single monument but for the whole: two hundred and thirteen years in which a religious-military order drawn from across Latin Christendom governed a fortified, multi-ethnic island capital, defended it with a minimum of men and money against repeated siege, and ran a port whose trade in pepper, caviar, fine textiles and other goods connected Rhodes to markets across the Mediterranean and beyond.
Eight Langues built eight Inns along one street — several still standing, as this project's own Statement of Significance for the Inn of Spain documents in detail — while the Order's Grand Masters built and rebuilt the city's fortifications, culminating in the defences tested by the Great Siege of 1522 (see this project's own “Siege of 1522 by Monument” document). The Order's own account of its arrival is set out in this project's “How the Hospitallers Came to Rhodes” document, and the walled Collachium the Knights built and governed is described in this project's “The Collachio of Rhodes” document.
But the Order's most lasting legacy, on this page's own account, is medical rather than military: a system of hospital care, logistics, hygiene and professional certification that predates, and in several respects anticipates, modern medical standards — delivered independent of a patient's creed, sex, class or origin. That legacy, together with the exceptionally well-preserved urban fabric the Order left behind, underpins the city's UNESCO inscription and its continued restoration, study and interpretation into the present.
Hellenic Republic: ΥΑ 23084/737/25-8-1948 — ΦΕΚ 10/23-9-1948 (Ministerial Decision declaring the monuments of the Medieval Town of Rhodes protected under Greek Archaeological Law), subsequently confirmed under Law 3028/2002 on the Protection of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage in General.
World Heritage property: Medieval City of Rhodes (ref. 493), inscribed 1988, meeting criteria (ii), (iv) and (v). Every monument illustrated in the gallery above lies within, or forms part of, this inscribed property.
References
- Hellenic Government Gazette (ΦΕΚ). Ministerial Decision 23084/737 (25 August 1948), ΦΕΚ 10 (23 September 1948), protection of the monuments of the Medieval Town of Rhodes; Law 3028/2002 on the Protection of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage in General.
- “Rhodes” (introductory text supplied for this page). Source document provided by the project for this Introduction; its substance — the 1309 settlement, the post-1453 Renaissance influx, the Order's government and commerce, and the medical legacy discussed above — is reported here as given, organised into this template's section structure.
- This project's own “How the Hospitallers Came to Rhodes” document — cross-referenced above for the Order's 1309 arrival and early settlement.
- This project's own “Siege of 1522 by Monument” document — cross-referenced above for the Order's surrender of 1522–23 and the end of Hospitaller rule.
- This project's own “The Collachio of Rhodes” document — cross-referenced above for the walled quarter and the Street of the Knights.
- This project's own Statement of Significance for the Inn of Spain — cross-referenced above for one of the eight Langue-houses described in Identity, above.
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre. “Medieval City of Rhodes.” World Heritage List, ref. 493. Inscribed 1988.