Welcome to Rhodes Town: the capital of the largest Dodecanese island.
The capital is located at the northern end of the island of Rhodes.
This great city is the oldest on the island of Rhodes: it has 2400 years of history and still retains every trace of the peoples who inhabited it, founded and colonized century after century.
The first feeling you will have when visiting Rhodes Town will be to have made an immense leap back, at the time of the Middle Ages. Around you high walls, ramparts, lanterns, narrow streets and historic streets, wash-house bridges and shops in very particular niches, where once we would have found stables for horses and places to find food and refreshment. If it were not for the presence of modern boutiques and small restaurants scattered here and there, we could easily have taken a trip over time of thousands of years. Impossible not to be dazzled by it!
So ... now that you are in Rhodes Town, close your eyes and fully immerse yourself in medieval times: you could still hear the sound of the metal and extremely heavy armor of the warriors and their racing horses, pass right by it!
The capital of the island of Rhodes counts with a couple of small municipalities adjacent well over 80,000 people: definitely a city in all respects.
The island of Rhodes and its capital have begun to be known and appreciated by European tourists since the 1960s (a decidedly recent date), but despite this, today it is one of the most complete Dodecanese islands on the comfort scene for guests: apartments, villas, boutique hotels and all-inclusive resorts - a wide choice able to satisfy families, couples and groups of friends. Every year in the island of Rhodes, the structures also choose to renew themselves to offer their visitors always attractive and good-quality facilities, so as not to upset anyone: it will seem obvious but for us that we know Greece quite well, it's not common in most of the Greek islands, where there is a tendency to leave the structures with a somewhat retro style (unfortunately!) and not in step with the times.
Rhodes Town is divided into two areas completely different from one another: Rhodes Old Town with imposing walls and founded in 408 BC and Rhodes New Town developed after 1912 under the Italian administration.
Rhodes Old Town was built on the model of Hippodamus of Miletus, on the basis of an Babylonian octagonal plan.
In the III Century BC the visitors upon their arrival on the island of Rhodes, could admire one of the seven wonders of the world: the Colossus of Rhodes, a huge statue of the god Elio, 32 meters high, which fell into the sea only 67 years after its construction, due to a very strong earthquake. It remained at the bottom of the sea for a good 800 years, and in 653 AD when Rhodes was conquered by the Arabs, the latter collected the statue from the bottom and sold it to pieces to a Jew and from here all its traces were lost.
Today at your arrival, there is no longer the Colossus of Rhodes, and the first thing you will see about Rhodes Old Town are certainly its imposing walls that surround it, for a full 4 km perimeter.
The walls of Rhodes Old Town are a masterpiece raised towards the mid-fourteenth century by the Knights of San Giovanni, who occupied it and settled here from 1309 to 1523, making the city their stronghold. The walls of Rhodes Town have been considered a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1988. Along with the walls rise towers and bastions, two of which are of particular importance: the bastion of San Giorgio with its polygonal shape and the circular Carretto bastion .
In addition to the ramparts it is impossible not to notice the 3 entrance gates: the door of d'Ambroise, that of San Atanasio (from which Suleiman the Magnificent made his triumphal entry in 1522) and the Porta Marina with two crenellated towers that opens up right from the sea side.
Inside the majestic walls, Rhodes Town is surrounded by structures of 4 different architectural styles: classic, medieval, Ottoman and Italian.
These 4 different styles together create a unique splendid scenario in complete harmony with the bars, shops, cafes and taverns that develop through its many narrow streets.
The most touristic part is certainly that of the Socratous street and the Aristotelous street, where the shopping streets are concentrated.
In Rhodes Old Town certainly you can not miss: the Archaeological Museum , the Palace of the Grand Master , the Bastions (visitable only on Tuesdays and Thursdays after 2.45pm and passing by the Archaeological Museum) and the Knights Street .
Rhodes New Town, is the city of our times and buzzing with bars, clubs, shops, boutiques overlooking the sea and taverns and restaurants set in its wonderful streets.
Here you cannot miss the Muslim Cemetery, the Greek Modern Art Museum (with over 1000 works of the greatest artists of the 20th century) and Mount Smith (a splendid archaeological site with the remains of the temple of Apollo, the Acropolis of Rhodes City, a large renovated theater and a stadium, as well as a breathtaking view).
We give you a little advice, but very very useful: especially Rhodes Old Town to be better understood, needs a guide to accompany you and tell you something more about the history and the peoples who have passed by them. Only in this way you will understand in the best and in the details a city so multifaceted and that has lasted for over 2400 years, to reach us. As we always say, investing time and money in a guide is the best thing you can do, when we visit open-air archaeological historical sites: it is your knowledge, your culture, and above all you can look at the island of Rhodes with decidedly different eyes, from those of other visitors.
And if it's time for dinner? Where to stop? We advise you to book at La Veranda, an excellent panoramic restaurant located right in the square from which you can admire all around. Excellent dishes of both meat and fish, and very kind staff and always at your disposal.
Rhodes Town will leave you breathless, whether you choose to visit it in the morning, at sunset or in the evening. Don't miss it!