Discover The Unknown Rhodes

The G.& A. Mamidakis Foundation, has for two decades now made ongoing efforts to present to the public major cultural events, always directly related to Tourism. To enrich our cultural activities, we conceived the idea of publishing a series of catalogues featuring the untrodden paths of the Greek mainland and islands, starting with Crete. "Discover the unknown Crete", was released last year and warmly embraced by our hotel guests, partners and travelers. Following our successful debut, we have explored, recorded and illustrated the untrodden paths of the island of Rhodes, in an equally inspiring 160 - page catalogue, entitled: Awake your Senses Discover the unknown Rhodes Island of Rhodes - Book two We trust that the publication of these practical catalogues, which also provide information about other unknown destinations - monasteries, archaeological sites - will enable modern - day travellers to experience another side of Rhodes, the authentic, unexplored inland regions of the island, just like the international travellers who discovered and recorded the charms of our land in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Gina Mamidakis President G. & A. Mamidakis Foundation

JUDITH LANGE MARIA STEFOSSI

awake your senses DISCOVER THE UNKNOWN RHODES Island of Rhodes - Book Two

Publication of this book has been made possible thanks to Gina Mamidakis, President of the G.& A. Foundation and bluegr Mamidakis Hotels group, and long-time patron of culture and the arts. The book is dedicated to those ever-curious travellers who wish to learn more of the beautiful island of Rhodes.

© copyright text and photographs by Judith Lange - Maria Stefossi © copyright edition by G.& A. Foundation and bluegr Mamidakis hotels group. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the authors.

Rhodes, the island born of the Sun

According to the myth, when the gods of Olympus divided the earth among them they forgot about the Sun God Helios who was still on his travels in his chariot of fire. Helios did not take offence but, looking down from high in the sky, he noticed an island that was still submerged by the waters. With the help of Poseidon he caused it to emerge and thus Rhodes appeared, “the island of the roses”. The name of the island is a homage to the nymph Rodon, daughter of Aphrodite, from whose love with Helios seven sons would be born who were to colonize many islands in the Aegean. The myth also tells that the first inhabitants of Rhodes were the Telhines, children of the sea, amphibious beings who were great inventors and craftsmen (creators of the first bronze statues) and experts in magic. Seen from above the island looks like a great green leaf floating on the waters, or perhaps a dolphin leaping the waves. History’s succession of events – from the Neolithic Age to the Mycenaean Era, from the Doric to the Classical and Hellenistic periods, from the dominion of the Knights of St John to the Ottoman occupation – have all left their mark and testimonies on the island soil. A small guidebook like this one cannot, certainly, hope to be exhaustive in describing every last one of this land’s many treasures (the most densely packed in all the Aegean), but it aims to offer suggestions that might help the reader to come to understand and love the beauty of the antique and modern traces of the island of Rhodes, of its villages, churches, monasteries and castles and of the landscape with its seas, forests, springs and mountains.

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MIRAMARE WONDERLAND

MIRAMARE WONDERLAND

Discover the leisure miracle Miramare Wonderland is a unique waterfront resort, providing an unparallel orchestration of forms, colours and images to capture your imagination. It is located on the beach of Ixia, on Rhodes north-west coast, 20 minutes from the Rhodes airport and 15 minutes from the renowned Medieval town of Rhodes. Unlike any other Greek resort, it was conceived and built as a small community of single and two-storey buildings, nestled along its private 1.5 km-long seafront. Paths meander through 70,000 m2 of scented gardens, a sparkling pool, an artificial lagoon and covered walkways.

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Indulge in en-suite luxury Each villa or cluster of bungalows is designed in earth, sea and sky tones and is secluded from its neighbours by magnificent trees, jasmine and bougainvillea. Private suites are from 45 m2 to 60 m2, with spacious balconies or patios and enjoy magnificent views. All of the 175 suite-bungalows offer every possible leisure service. The Waterfront and Seafront suites are truly exclusive with their own open terraces.

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MIRAMARE WONDERLAND

MIRAMARE WONDERLAND

Experience superb facilities Discover a spectacular swimming pool, with superb wooden sun decks, extending right to the sea. At the 1,500 metre-long pebble beach equipped with umbrellas and sun beds, you can enjoy a number of fascinating water-sports.

Discover exquisite tastes Offering the finest service coupled with friendliness, Miramare Wonderland proposes impeccable dining experiences. A rich buffet is served daily at the Olyo restaurant or even on your own terrace. During the day, you can enjoy Greek and international delicacies at the Gulliver restaurant, refreshments and exotic drinks at the pool bar Kahuna, while in the evening, you can sip a cocktail at Kotinos bar. At night, enjoy a romantic gourmet dinner near the lagoon, accompanied by live entertainment. If you feel like staying in, our room service can provide you a delicious dinner on your private terrace. In case you feel like going out, drinks are offered at the Gulliver bar until late hours. 8

For the activity minded, the hotel offers a tennis court and a well-equipped gym. The 3 km-long paths in the estate are ideal to take a walk within the scented gardens. The Miramare Wonderland highlight is its romantic mini train, replica of a 19th British steam engine, which can take you around the entire complex. Our young friends can spend an exciting day at our children's club, whilst our baby sitting service will allow you some extra relaxation time. Our mini-market, jewellery shop, medical care and exchange desk complete our services to the last detail.

Ixia, Gr - 85 101 Rhodes, Greece T: +30 2 2410 96251 F: +30 2 2410 95954

[email protected]

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MIRAMARE WONDERLAND

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wind

Enjoy a unique sensory experience in surroundings designed to introduce a feeling of complete luxury, comfort and relaxation. Rejuvenate your mind and body through the elements of nature and get inspired by wonderful tastes, sights, sounds and aromas. Watch the sun glowing like fire on the eternal blue of the ocean, feel the wind caressing your skin, smell the earth's enticing fragrances, taste the refreshing water and surrender to the music of sounds filling the space around you… Enjoy life to its fullest; embrace nature with all your senses and reveal the source of all inspiration, the ancient knowledge of life "Ayurveda" that underpins our hospitality philosophy. Blue… a source of pure ethereal energy that encircles all elements, a symbol of peace and tranquility that brings harmony and broadens your perspectives. Immerse yourself in it and discover the bridge between soul and matter, the resource for holistic thinking, the channel of human communication…

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CHAPTER 1

RHODES, THE CITY OF THE “HUNDRED COLOSSI”

THE MEDIEVAL CITY THE HARBOUR AND THE MODERN TOWN THE ACROPOLIS

C H A P T E R

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Rhodes

Only a few traces remain of the original fifthcentury B.C. layout of the city of Rhodes

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The Laocoon group, Hellenistic era

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p until the fifth century B.C. the island was governed by three city-states, Ialysos, Kamiros and Lindos, but by the end of the century, after it was devastated by the Athenian Alcibiades, the Rhodians realised the necessity of creating a unified state with a new capital. In 408 B.C. they founded Rhodes, based on Hippodamos of Militos’s design for a city on a grid plan, which soon became the largest commercial metropolis on the route between the Orient and the West. Conquered by the Romans in the second century B.C., the city lost political importance, but remained a flourishing cultural centre where great personages such as Caesar, Augustus and Tiberius, or intellectuals like Cicero and Lucretius sojourned. In the first century B.C. the historian Pliny wrote that Rhodes possessed “3000 statues and 100 colossi”, referring to the magnificent statues that decorated the city, considered the most beautiful in all the Mediterranean.

In the same period the geographer Strabo affirmed that “harbours, roads and buildings are so superior to the other cities that we know nothing its equal”. By that time Rhodes had already been conquered by the Romans who sacked the city of her treasures, filling the holds of their ships with the most beautiful sculptures – among which the Laocoön, Scylla, Ulysses and Polyphemus and the Farnese Bull – to adorn the palaces of Rome. Legs akimbo, protecting the port of Mandraki, only the celebrated Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, met a different fate. Work of the sculptor Chares, a pupil of Lysippos, the Colossus was in bronze, 32 metres high and represented the Sun God, Helios. Erected between 302 and 290 B.C., it fell during an earthquake in 226 B.C., after less than a century and a half. Hundreds of pieces lay about on the ground for almost nine centuries, until at last they were bought by an oriental merchant who wanted to fuse the bronze. After the invasion of the Goths in the third century A.D. the city was conquered by the Byzantines, who in turn were besieged by Persians and Saracens. Later on Venetians, Genoese and Byzantines would contest Rhodes until 1309, when the Knights of the Order of St John arrived, patrons of the island until the Ottoman conquest of 1522.

Every historical period has left its tangible signs, except for the Colossus, which fell in the third century B.C.

C H A P T E R

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The medieval city

In the Byzantine era the city was already

Doric Temple of Aphrodite from the third century B.C.

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entirely girded by walls, today still perfectly preserved with their numerous towers and nine gates. The Knights of Rhodes enlarged and restored the city walls and affixed the coats of arms of the Seven Tongues (the name given to the knights’ various places of origin) and those of the noble families of the Grand Masters. A wide fosse or moat divides the double walls, in places as much as 12 metres wide in order to resist the Turkish cannon balls. From the walk along the ramparts one enjoys a splendid view of the medieval city which in 1988 was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Elephterias (or Liberty) Gate introduces us into the monumental part of the city, the so-called Collachium of the Knights. In Simi Square we find the ruins of a great Temple of Aphrodite in the Doric style of the third century B.C. and, facing it, an ancient palace which houses the Art Gallery in which there can be seen works by Greek artists from the nineteenth century to the present day. In a second square, the platia Argyrokastrou, there

stand the buildings of the Knights’ First Infirmary, which now houses the Archaeological Library, and those of the Museum of Decorative Arts which preserves interesting objects from the craft traditions of the Dodecanese. The fountain in the centre of the square is composed of an antique baptismal font and a column taken from the early-Christian church of St Irene.

C H A P T E R

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The monumental stairway of the New Hospital of the Knights which houses the Archaeological Museum

A little further on, in the square by the Museum we find ourselves facing one of the city’s most beautiful buildings, the New Hospital of the Knights, erected at the end of the fifteenth century. In the courtyard a stone lion from the Hellenistic period holds the head of a dead bull between his claws. In the large rooms on the upper floor the Archaeological Museum has been laid out, and is rich in works of art: ceramics, funerary stele, grave goods and sculptures (amongst which the crouching Aphrodite, a head of the Sun God Helios, the torso of a Kouros and a nymph with her arms raised aloft) – testimonies to the extraordinary quality of Rhodian art which had its origins in the sculptural tradition of the school of Lysippos. 18

Late Hellenistic statue, known as the “Marine Venus”

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ARCHAELOGICAL MUSEUM OF RHODES

ARCHAELOGICAL MUSEUM OF RHODES

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1. Funerary stele from the first century B.C. 2. Female head from the early Hellenistic period 3. Statue of a nymph from the first century B.C. 4. Aphrodite or Nymph, late Hellenistic period

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5. Kouros from Kamiros, sixth century B.C. 6. Funerary monument, fifth century B.C. 7. Aphrodite, known as the “Crouching Aphrodite”, late Hellenistic period

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C H A P T E R

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Our visit to the monumental part of the city continues along the Street of the Knights, its severe medieval architecture still intact. The perfectly-aligned buildings served as inns for the pilgrims and were separated by chapels for prayer and by several patrician palaces bearing the arms of the Knights’ nations of origin. At the top of the street there stands, in all its grandeur, the fourteenth-century Palace of the Grand Masters, with its great arched courtyard where Roman-era statues have been arranged.

The Grand Masters’ residence lay on the upper floor, and the palace is essentially a series of great rooms, corridors and chapels, decorated with a profusion of marbles and mosaics, columns and statues. On show in one of the rooms is the celebrated sculptural group of Laocoön and his children being crushed by the sea-snakes: this is a plaster copy because the first-century B.C. original, work of the Rhodian artists Hagesandros, Athanodoros and Polydoros, is today to be found in the Vatican Museums in Rome. 22

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converted into a small museum) and of St George, which the Ottomans transformed into a mosque, while the adjoining monastery became a medresse – a koranic school.

The clock tower

A Turkish fountain

Ayia Kiriaki

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Ayii Apostoloi

Leaving the Palace of the Grand Masters and walking towards the Clock Tower (clearly visible at the highest point of the city because during Turkish rule it marked the hour at which the Greek inhabitants had to leave the city walls) we have the old town at our feet, and nothing could be lovelier than losing oneself among the alleyways of the Christian, Turkish and Jewish quarters. Churches, mosques, crosses and minarets alternate, at times blurring into one, and always counterbalancing one another – now that the battles for dominion over the city are long-passed. At the time of the Ottoman occupation many churches were transformed into mosques simply by removing the sacred objects and replacing them with the Islamic mihrab, minbar and qibla, and naturally adding a minaret. Many churches have been re-consecrated without demolishing the minarets, mute testimonies to a history that lasted almost four centuries. Crowning a dominant position is the finely chiselled minaret of the Mosque of Suleiman with its red domes, whilst in front of it we find the Ottoman Library with an interesting collection of objects and books from the Turkish period. A little further on there stand the churches of the Holy Apostles (now

The Mosque of Suleiman

In the alleyways and little squares around Sokratous Street one breathes in full the Ottoman spirit, visiting the Mosque of Sultan Moustafa with its truncated minaret and flanked by the Yeni hamam, the Turkish baths. Not much further on we find the mosque of Retjep Pasha with a beautiful fountain, while in the distance one can make out the gracious white minaret of the Ibrahim Pasha mosque, built in 1531 immediately after the conquest.

The Ibrahim Pasha Mosque, the oldest in the city

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C H A P T E R

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Ayia Triada from the fifteenth century, with the truncated minaret of the ex-mosque

Hellenistic and Byzantine-era ruins in the centre of the city

The entrance to the Mosque of Sultan Moustafa and a little fountain

Penetrating into the heart of the Turkish quarter, churches and mosques really do begin to blur: the Demirli Camii was once a Byzantine place of worship, the church of Ayios Spiridon is still topped by a minaret, the chapels of Ayios Fanourios and Ayia Triada stand beside the ruins of a Turkish palace and the church of Ayia Kiriaki also still flaunts its minaret which once belonged to the Buruzan Camii.

Narrow houses, fountains, miniscule courtyards paved with kochlakes (the river-polished pebbles), small shrines and scattered ruins from Hellenistic and Byzantine eras all form an intricate urban weave. Many lanes are surmounted by stone archways in the style of old Jerusalem, and this was perhaps what the Knights intended, coming as they did from Palestine. The Retjep Pasha Mosque, constructed with material salvaged from medieval buildings

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C H A P T E R

Few traces remain of the Jewish quarter where there once lived a large Sephardic community

A black pillar recalls the deportation of the Jews in 1944

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1

The Jewish quarter extends into the eastern part of the city, but has conserved little or nothing of the memory of the Jews who lived here for more than a thousand years. Once passed the ruins of the gothic church of Ste Marie de la Victoire one reaches the platia Evreon Martirion (Square of the Jewish Martyrs) with a monument in the centre of the square in memory of the deportation of the Jews to the Nazi concentration camps in 1944. The only synagogue to have survived is the recently restored Kahal Kadosh Shalom, which houses a museum dedicated to the history of the Jews of Rhodes.

The first Jews arrived on Rhodes in the second century B.C. and the comunity slowly grew. In the twelfth century many Jewish intellectuals, like the Spaniard Benjamin de Tudela and the Italian Meshulam da Volterra, visited Rhodes and admired the beauty of the houses, the commercial activities and, in particular, the production of precious cloth. After centuries of peaceful cohabitation with the Greeks and even the Ottomans, the community collapsed under the German occupation: arrested, tortured and deprived of their property, the Jews were deported to Auschwitz and only a handful survived.

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C H A P T E R

The character of the city emerges in the smallest details

From Medieval to Neoclassical: every architectural style is represented in Rhodes

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Throughout the long sweep of her often tormented history – from her occupation and sacking by the Romans to the arrival of the Knights from Palestine, from the Ottoman dominion to the privations suffered during the second world war – the city of Rhodes has managed, despite everything, to conserve her cosmopolitan vocation and her character of generosity. The streets and palaces, the places of worship, the houses and every last corner of the city offer us a living proof that here the peaceful cohabitation of men of different cultures and origins was possible. Today one still notes the traces of this amalgam, both its grandiose and monumental vestiges and the small, modest details that make up a city of particular charm located on the farthest edge of Europe, looking out towards the Orient.

C H A P T E R

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The harbour and the modern town

The monumental fifteenth-century Fort Ayios Nikolaos looms over the harbour

Tall columns surmounted by bronze deer and the imposing St Nicolas Fort mark the entrance to the ancient Mandraki Harbour where, according to tradition, the Colossus of Rhodes was once erected, his giant feet of bronze placed on either side of the harbour entrance.

From the Nea Agora, the circular New Market with an oriental-style pavilion, one proceeds along Eleftherias Avenue as far as the city’s northernmost point. During the Italian occupation, which lasted from 1912 to 1943, various buildings – rather eclectic in aspect – were constructed along this road which formed the administrative centre of the city. Some are in the typical rationalist style of the Fascist regime, like the Tribunal with its heavycolumned façade or the square exheadquarters of the Air Force (nowadays the Institute of Professional Training) which stirs ugly memories because during the Nazi occupation it was here that Greek dissidents and Jews were held before being deported to the concentration camps. Some of the other buildings that face onto the port are of a nobler and more fanciful aspect:

Italian architecture of the 1930’s characterises the long, wide avenue that leads from the Nea Agora to Kolumburno point

Old mills on the jetty

The bronze stag and doe that are the symbols of Rhodes

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C H A P T E R

The neo-gothic church of Evanghelismos is covered with frescoes by the great painter Fotis Kontoglou

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the large Prefecture complex vaguely recalls Venice’s Doge’s Palace with its tracery, arches and rose-windows, while the church of Evanghelismos was built in a neo-gothic style in a homage to the design of the ancient church of St John from the time of the Knights. More sober in appearance are the ex-Theatre and the circular Fish Market, now being restored and it too the work of Italian architects. In contrast, in the former Hotel des Roses (today a muchfrequented casino) the predominant style is Moorish-colonial.

The casino (ex-Hotel des Roses) and Government House are the most sumptuous of the buildings created by the Italian architects

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C H A P T E R

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Arriving as far as Kolumburno point, which sticks out into the sea like the prow of a ship, one can visit the pavilion containing the town Acquarium – the former Italian Hydrobiological Institute – which exhibits a series of tanks with the marine fauna of the Aegean.

Still in the harbour area, we would recommend a visit to the Mosque of Murad Reis with its beautiful onion-domed minaret standing within a Moslem cemetery. Decorated headstones emerge beneath the trees, while dotted around the gardens are larger tombs wherein there lie illustrious figures: pashas, viziers and dignitaries of court, but also the Turkish poet Mehmed Efendi.

The Aquarium is a perfect example of Italian rationalist architecture

The modern city has nonchalantly absorbed diverse styles and cultures which blend with and complement one another, without clashing. Whilst the buildings of the old town are packed as closely as a nut in its shell, the city beyond the walls, in the area around the harbour, offers wide spaces with great treelined avenues and buildings so generously spaced out as to almost seem monuments. Human society changes, and with it the needs and demands of the living. 42

The calm that now reigns in the gardens of the Mosque of Murad Reis makes it easy to forget the drammatic conflicts of the past

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C H A P T E R

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The Acropolis and Rodini Park The Acropolis (also known as Mount Smith) looks down over the city of Rhodes

The stadion was invented by the Greeks to host athletic competitions which were also religious and educational in nature

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On Monte Smith (or Mt Ayios Stephanos) there stands the ancient acropolis of Rhodes which conserves a very few isolated monuments like the Temple of Pythian Apollo, of which there remain a few pillars in the Doric style. More modest are the remains of a sanctuary dedicated to Athene Polias and Zeus Polieus. The immense structure of the third-century B.C. Stadium is, on the other hand, easily recognisable; 201 metres long, it still has several rows of its tiered seating. The little Theatre (odeon) between the Temple of Apollo and the Stadium was restored by Italian archaeologists who reconstructed the cavea. In the area around this tombs dating back to the Hellenistic era have been found along with the foundations of a gymnasium and of a nymphaeum. Rodini Park, to the south of the modern city, is a green oasis with woods, ponds, streams and a wildlife reserve. In the archaeological area there are numerous tombs hewn from the rock, including the so-called Tomb of the Ptolemies, the façade of which conserves a series of blank pillars and of niches.

The odeon was a small theatre for musical recitals and competitions

The Doric columns of the Temple of Pythian Apollo 45

faithfully committed to Mussolini’s regime, Cesare de Vecchi. On

government. The Italian occupation of the Fascist period can be

Rhodes the conflict with the local population intensified as they

divided into two phases: the first from 1923 to 1936 when the

were forced to frequent exclusively Italian schools in order to

governor was Mario Lago, a peaceable and cultured man who

subdue Greek culture and language. The new governor decided

summoned leading archaeologists and architects to the island

to speed up the construction of rural colonies like Ayios Pavlos

to begin work on the excavations at Kamiros and to restore the

and Kolimbia, where Italian workmen and agricultural labourers

citadel of Rhodes.

were to be settled. In 1942, during the first air-raids by the British, Cesare de Vecchi abandoned the island. After the signing of the armistice on 8th September 1943, the Italians found themselves fighting against the German troops. In 1944 the Nazis deported 5000 of the island’s inhabitants to the concentration camps. On German surrender the island became a British mandate and in 1947 Rhodes was annexed to Greece.

At the same time he set about transforming the harbour area, having new buildings designed, at times rather too exuberant in their architecture but nevertheless creating an atmospheric setting. Among the architects employed we find Pietro

R H O D E S

to Italy, and Rhodes became the seat of the newly imposed

O N

too much a friend of the Jews, was replaced with a figure

I T A L I A N S

In 1935 Mario Lago, considered too easy-going and

the Treaty of Lausanne assigned the islands of the Dodecanese

T H E

R H O D E S O N I T A L I A N S T H E

Following the victory in the Italian-Turkish war of 1911-1912,

Lombardi, the creator of much-celebrated buildings back home in Italy, who designed the beautiful Thermai Kallithea and curated the Rhodes Pavilion at the International Exhibitions of Paris and Cologne. In 1925 the architect Florestano di Fausto also arrived, a lover of the Moorish style and to whom we owe, among other works, the Nea Agora, the Prefecture and the Hotel des Roses. 46

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The Knights resided in the so-called Collachium within the walls around the Palace of the Grand Master. They erected numerous fortifications, churches and (Latin rite) monasteries and controlled the lucrative commercial maritime traffic between Orient and the West. Thanks to donations, excellent commercial relationships and agricultural activity,

T H E

K N I G H T S

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the Holy Land, called the Hospitallers of the Order of St John of Jerusalem. The order revealed its military character during the crusades (milites Christi) and thenceforth its members would be called Knights. Following the Moslem conquest of Palestine the Knights were expelled and for a brief time found hospitality on Cyprus. In 1306 they were recruited by the Genovese admiral Vignolo de Vignoli to conquer Rhodes, at the time under Byzantine dominion. In 1309 the Knights succeeded in occupying Rhodes and subsequently all the islands of the Dodecanese, becoming absolute masters for more than two centuries with the

ships and 100,000 men. It took the Ottomans 32 years of battle before they managed to tear the island from the Knights who finally surrendered to Suleiman the Magnificent in 1522. On the 1st January 1523 the Knights abandoned the island together with 4000 inhabitants of Rhodes, repairing to Malta. There they recreated the confraternity under the

R H O D E S

R H O D E S

order dedicated to the care of the sick, but also to the defence of

the Ottomans who arrived on the island with 170

name of the Sovereign Military Order of St John of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta.

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by Benedictine monks. Later the monks created an autonomous

In the summer of 1480 they repelled the first siege by

K N I G H T S

merchants from Amalfi built an inn for pilgrims which was run

the Knights’ financial wealth was immense.

T H E

During the eleventh century in Jerusalem a group of rich

blessing of the Roman pontificate. At the head of the Knights of Rhodes was the Grand Master who commanded the representatives of the seven European tongues (nations): England, France, Portugal, 48

Germany, Spain, Italy and Provence.

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CHAPTER 2

FROM IALYSOS TO KOLIMBIA: ANCIENT AND MODERN ON THE WINGS OF A BUTTERFLY

IALYSOS THEOLOGOS AYIOS SILLAS VALLEY OF THE BUTTERFLIES ELEOUSSA AYIOS NIKOLAOS FOUNDOUKLI KAMIROS THERMAI KALLITHEA SEVEN SPRINGS

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As we leave the city of Rhodes and its nearby tourist-crowded beaches behind us, the island reveals a very different aspect; it becomes more silent, more shadowy and seems almost to want to hide its treasures. The entire sweep of Rhodian history is already compressed into this first strip of the island: from the ancient cities like Kamiros to the castles of the Knights, from the Ottoman villages to the monumental constructions of the Italians at the beginning of the last century, one travels into a landscape both changing and eternal like the Valley of the Butterflies.

The bell tower of the church of the Knights at Filerimos

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Ialysos-Filerimos

Once one climbed on foot or on mule-back up to the summit of Mt Filerimos, a difficult climb for the peasants and even more so for the enemy troops who over the centuries attempted to conquer Ialysos, the city-state that once stood at the summit of the hill. Its mythical founder was Ialysos, grandson of the Sun God Helios and the nymph Rodon, but in reality the first settlement dates back to the Mycenaean period, halfway through the second millennium B.C., as is testified by the remains found in the numerous necropoli that surround Mt Filerimos. Many legends grew up around the city, like that of Phorbas, son of Lapithes, who succeeding in killing all the poisonous snakes that infested the island and to whom, by way of thanks, a sanctuary was dedicated. In ancient times Rhodes was lamented to be the “island of the serpents”, but now they are rarely to be seen (thanks, perhaps, to Phorbas) and one is more likely to encounter the big dragon-like but innocuous lizards that the locals call savres.

Temple of Athene Polias, erected in the Hellenistic era

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Another story that has been handed down to us is that of the astute Iphicles, twin brother of Hercules, who succeeded in chasing off the Phoenicians who were entrenched on the acropolis of Ialysos. An oracle had predicted that the Phoenicians would flee should white crows be seen in flight and should fish swim in wine. Iphicles won with a trick: he painted a flock of crows with white lime and placed fish in the barrels of wine. Worried by such “magic” the Phoenicians surrendered. In the fifth century B.C. Ialysos became famous as the birthplace of the poet Timocreon and the athlete-prince Diagoras of the clan of the Eratides (descendants of Hercules), who as a boxer was the winner of many Olympic and Pan-Hellenic games. To Diagoras the great poet Pindar dedicated one of his most beautiful odes in which he recalls the mythical creation of Rhodes, “With Diagoras I came, to sing of Aphrodite’s seachild, Rodon, bride of the sun” (Pindar, Ode VII, verse 13-14). The chronicles recount that this ode was inscribed in gold letters on the temple of Athene in Lindos.

The “miracle” of the fish is a legend: the Phoenicians never did occupy Ialysos

Diagoras of Rhodes was one of the most famous athletes of the Greek world: a statue of him was even erected at Olympia

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In the tenth century the Byzantines

The imposing complex of the Knights’ church and monastery

founded a monastery here, but in 1306 the acropolis was conquered by the Knights of the Order of St John and in 1522, during the Ottoman siege of Rhodes, it was here that Suleiman the Magnificent established his residence. Three millennia of history lie layered one atop another at Ialysos: from the Mycenaean necropoli to the great Doric fountain ornate with lions’ heads, from the imposing remains of a third- or second-century B.C. temple dedicated to Athene Polias to the gothic Basilica of the Knights built over a monastery of the Byzantine era, then amplified with cloisters and courtyards. The entire complex has been restored with great care and has become one of the most visited places on the island.

lower down one can still make out the figures with their mantles folded in a gesture of protection towards the knights-in-arms. Of the Byzantine fortification that enclosed the entire summit of Mt Filerimos there remain a few traces of the walls and the towers, from which one has a magnificent view of the coast.

The frescoes of Ayios Georgios Chostos with saints and knightsin-arms

In front of the basilica, on the slope of the hill and almost invisible, the little Byzantine church of Ayios Georgios Chostos is to be found. Even if the frescos have rather faded, 56

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The temple of Apollo at Theologos and Ayios Sillas

At the edge of the village of Theologos we

Apollo Erethimios was a pre-Hellenistic divinity, protector of those who worked the land

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find the ancient settlement of Tholos with the remains of a sanctuary from the fifth or fourth century B.C. dedicated to Apollo Erethimios, protector of agricultural life and venerated by the entire population living in the fertile lands surrounding here. Set into the bare terrain one can still see the massive stones of the temenos and the bolders that formed the columns of the Temple which must have had an imposing appearance. A little way off, alongside the modest ruins of the ancient settlement, one recognises the cavea of a small theatre, still perfect in its semicircular structure and with traces of the stage formed of great river pebbles. The place is not particularly pleasant, lying between the traffic of the coastal road and the modern houses, but it is worth visiting the Temple to remember that here nature and the works of man once showed themselves in all their vigorous beauty.

From Theologos one can continue towards the hills as far as the sanctuary of Ayios Sillas in the middle of a great park with tall trees, springs and vast enclosed lawns. It is lovely, and very relaxing, to wander along the avenues accompanied by the subtle noise of the waters as far as the sanctuary’s little white church. Every year in summertime the park houses donkey- and horse-races, with traditional dances and much drinking. There is a masterly description of this festival in Reflections on a Marine Venus by the English writer Lawrence Durrell who lived on Rhodes for a long time after the war. The sanctuary of Ayios Sillas is simple and unpretentious, its great attraction being the vast park

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At the entrance to the park a Museum of Natural History has been laid out, displaying a myriad of butterflies of all species stuckthrough with pins, and some stuffed animals – examples of the local fauna such as hares, foxes, falcons, tortoises and salamanders.

The Valley of the Petaloudes and Moni Kalopetra

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ike miniscule divinities the butterflies of Rhodes feed on a perfumed nectar, a sweet vanilla-flavoured resin that drips from the bark of a tree which grows uniquely here and is similar to the plane-tree. For centuries thousands of butterflies have lived in this Valley of the Petaloudes without ever having felt the desire to move on elsewhere, perhaps inebriated by the resin which serves to nourish them, but is also used to make incense. Externally, with wings closed, the butterflies appear modest with their brown and cream colours, but when they take flight they are much to be admired for their brilliant orangered which illuminates the dense vegetation. The butterfly is the poetic essence of beauty, harmoniously symmetrical, evanescent and graceful, and it would seem impossible that it should have enemies, yet it does run risks: it is the much-enjoyed prey of the red ants who kill it with a single bite. 60

At the top of the valley there stands the little church of Moni Kalopetra, a monastery founded in 1784: white with red-paint edging, and with a typical Rhodian floor of kochlakes, the river-polished pebbles, the church is simple and intimate, its ceiling painted sky-blue with the odd splash of gold and a wooden iconostasis.

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Eleoussa

Continuing along the road which from Moni Kalopetra penetrates into the thick forest of pines that characterises the landscape of the northern part of the island, we enter the vast territory of Mt Profitis Ilias. The first village we meet is Psinthos which possesses two beautiful frescoed churches, Ayia Trias and Panaghia Parmeniotissa. However the village is also famous because it is here that the battle took place in which, in 1912, the Italians definitively defeated the Turks, a victory which led to the Italian occupation of the island. The signs of the Italian presence become tangible when one arrives at Eleoussa, a little village on the side of the mountain. In 1943 Eleoussa (which was then christened Campochiaro) became the summer residence of the Italian governor who ordered that the inhabitants replant the forests of the area.

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A shady forest of pines covers the slopes of Mt Profitis Ilias

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The little town was graced with a large, rectangular, tree-lined square, flanked with buildings in a very particular style which was called “colonial” but that consists, rather, of a Mediterranean mishmash (not unattractive, in fact rather fascinating) with medieval, renaissance and vaguely oriental references and with a touch of rationalist architecture thrown in.

The fanciful complex lies abandoned and is much degraded, with the long portico now breached, fountains invaded by the weeds, balconies rusting, windows and doors removed, glass broken and inside a field of rubble formed of decorated tiles, falling curtains and blackened fireplaces. One can still make out the bright colours of the buildings’ plaster (Pompeii-red, pea-green and lemonyellow) and it is a shame that they have not been restored, at least in part, even if one can understand that the period of the Italian occupation does not hold good memories. The only restoration work done regards an immense circular pool at the edge of the village, a veritable and lovely monument to water.

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Rare species of fish swim in the circular pool

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Ayios Nikolaos Foundoukli on Mt Profitis Ilias

The mountain of Profitis Ilias is covered with a compact, dark-green mantle of conifers, where there alternate pointed limestone rocks and a soft undergrowth which in springtime is filled with flowers of every imaginable species, some rare, such as little orchids and peonies. Deep in the forest we find the church of Ayios Nikolaos Foundoukli, one of the island’s most beautiful. Foundoukli – which means “hazelnut” – was once part of a monastery complex now in ruins and was erected by a high-ranking Byzantine official at the time of the Paleologhi dynasty, at some time in the fourteenth or fifteenth century, in memory of his three children dead of the plague. In one of the apses one can glimpse the three little ones in a paradise of vines and birds, being welcomed by the Christ Child. The church was constructed with apses on each of its four sides and with a central dome with numerous niches and little alabaster

windows that filter a golden light onto the altar. The precious frescos represent the life of Christ from birth to the resurrection, the Apostles, almost cancelled out by time, the founder with his consort who hold up the model of the church and the Saints of the Orthodox church, among whom we see the first hermit in history, St Onuphrius, entirely covered by his long grey beard.

The frescos which cover the church from top to bottom date back to the fourteenth or fifteenth century and have more than once been restored

A part of the outer walls of Foundoukli was decorated with ceramic plates and the tympanum above the entrance was also frescoed

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Small places of devotion

A beautiful panoramic road runs all the way

Ayios Georgios is one of the saints most widely venerated in Greece

around Mt Profitis Ilias, on the southern face of which there lies the small agricultural village of Apollona, with an interesting Folklore Museum, and on the northern face the village of Salakos, with its lovely piazza and the kafenion in the shade of the trees. Travelling amid vineyards and orchards one reaches the village of Kapi, not far from Salakos, midway to which we come across the little church of Ayios Georgios with remains of folk-art frescos among which there stands out that of the patron saint, upright on his white horse and looking at us out of dark, long-lashed eyes.

Continuing on our wanders amid the fields we arrive at the stone ruins, submerged by giant prickly pears, of the abandoned village of Nani. On a small mound, some way before the houses, a chapel has been erected dedicated to Taxiarchis Michail which contains a fresco of the patron saint. Below the iconostasis there hangs a reproduction of a famous icon of the Archangel Michael belonging to the great Taxiarchis Panormitis monastery on the island of Simi, in demonstration of the fact that the little church of Nani was subordinate to that monastic complex.

Even the most modest of icons are full of charm

Isolated as they are, the little churches are still regularly whitewashed

Turning towards Salakos and taking the road to the coast, the eye is drawn to a curious “ecomonster” construction: the unfinished skeleton of a hotel complex in a Spanish Alhambra style. Delusions of grandeur truncated at birth. 68

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The city-state of Kamiros

The ancient settlement of Kamiros

ivy, animals and various floral patterns. The local work in gold and ivory also became famous throughout Greece. In the third century B.C. the city was gravely damaged by a series of powerful seismic tremors that caused many buildings and monuments to collapse. Kamiros was rebuilt according to the dictates of Hellenistic town-planning, but was then newly devastated by a terrible earthquake in 139 B.C.. The inhabitants abandoned the city and it has never since been repopulated. Rediscovered in the mid eighteenth century, Kamiros was brought back up to the light by the Italian archaeologists between 1928 and 1943.

The myth of Kamiros is linked to the first

Site of votive offerings

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inhabitants of the island, the amphibious Telhines, children of the sea and great inventors. The story tells that one of them, the legendary Mylas, constructed, at Kamiros, the first millstone, thus teaching men how to produce flour and to bake bread. The foundation of the city is attributed to the Minoan Althemenes, son of Creteos, king of Crete, and nephew of the powerful Minos, but in reality the first traces of a settlement date back to the Mycenaean period, around the sixteenth or fifteenth centuries B.C.. Towards the year 1000 B.C. the Dorians arrived, and created at Kamiros the island’s third city-state, after Lindos and Ialysos. In the Archaic and Classical eras the city became famous for its skilled craftsmanship and especially for the precious vases of Fikellura, decorated with palmettes,

The fountain square

The vast archaeological area that we visit today is a typical example of a Hellenisticera city, planned respecting the natural lie of the terrain with three terraces and a precise subdivision of public, sacred and private spaces. 71

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Temple of Pythian Apollo, third to second century B.C.

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On the lower level the vast agora stretches out and from here we access the Temple of Pythian Apollo in the Doric style with, beside the podium, a pit into which the offerings to the god were thrown. A second sacred space, embellished with six columns that bordered a fountain, was dedicated to the sacred ceremonies for the gods and the heroes of Kamiros. In the third sanctuary, it too on the lower terrace, the sacrifices to the Sun God Helios took place.

High up on the acropolis the immense pit of a sixth-century B.C. cistern awaits us; from here a system of gullies carried water towards the city. Further on we find a 200 metre-long stoa with two rows of Doric columns once separated by water spouts that supplied the guest chambers. Beyond the stoa there arose the great temple of Athene Polias, protectress of Kamiros, which crumbled miserably during the earthquake of 139 B.C.: now only the foundations can be seen and we have to read the ancient chronicles in order to get any idea of the magnificence of this sanctuary.

Archaic cistern and the fews remains of the temple of Athene Polias

The labyrinth of private houses

A labyrinth of narrow streets and houses built one close up against another characterises the compact tangle of the urban weave. The houses are very small and some might marvel at how man once adapted himself to life in such mean rooms: we should remember that life was lived in the open air, among friendly gossip and arguments, business negotiations and political meetings. 72

Esedra and pillar with inscription near the altar to the gods

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Thermai Kallithea

A grand fountain marks the entrance to Kallithea spa, once famous for its health-giving waters

Our journey continues on the other side of the coast, starting out from Rhodes towards Kolimbia. On the promontory of Cape Voda, where, dotted with thousands of coloured beach umbrellas, the endless beach of Faliraki begins, in 1928 the Italian architect Pietro Lombardi and the governor Mario Lago conceived the grandiose watering-place of Kallithea, which has nothing to envy the seaside resorts of Capri or the Venice Lido.

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Enormous domes, oriental-style arches, great circular fountains, porticos with columns over which hibiscus and bougainvillaea climb, wide rooms with mirrors and stuccos, an atrium that seems stolen from one of the villas of ancient Rome, terraces that look over the cliffs and the serpentine pathways through the gardens: it all creates an ambience of extreme luxury, exotic in taste, and it is hard not to be won over by its charms. Recently the complex has been subjected to a very detailed restoration, painted a blinding white (the original colours varied from pink to sky blue and turquoise), and it was reopened to the public in the summer of 2007. A small beach and a café created below the overhanging rocks complete the redecorated spa. The health-giving waters of Kallithea were already renowned by the ancients, even at the time of Hippocrates, and attracted visitors from east and west (among them the Roman Emperor Augustus in person) who came here to cure rheumatism, arthritis and kidney complaints.

The architect Lombardi was for many years a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and had a great love of ‘design’. The theatricality of the plans for Kallithea is significant if we bear in mind that Lombardi was also famous as the set designer for historical “colossals” like Teodora and Quo Vadis?.

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entrance, a crowd of the damned who suffer the torments of hell. There are also some votive graffiti representing sailing boats and a trireme (a galley with three banks of oars).

Panaghia Katholiki at Afantou

Our itinerary continues along the road that

Panaghia Katholiki conserves fragments of the original earlyChristian church

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runs parallel to sandy beaches and stretches of cliff as far as the village of Afantou. The name Afantou means “invisible” and in fact it is located far from the coast: in Medieval times the village lay beside the sea, but the inhabitants were forced to rebuild their homes among the hills in order to escape the continual incursions by pirates. Of the original Afantou there remains only the church of Panaghia Katholiki, erected in the twelfth century and incorporating elements of a precedent earlyChristian basilica. The interior boasts a rare and very beautiful iconostasis in stone with traces of paint. The whole of the church is fresco-covered and alongside the more commonplace Byzantine iconology it exhibits some unusual scenes: the Virgin among the angels with the biblical patriarch Isaac who holds up the soul of a human being, St Peter who welcomes the good thief of Golgotha and, immediately next to the

Climbing up behind Afantou we arrive at the monastery of Panaghia Paramithias with modern paintings in a neo-Byzantine style and a lovely icon of the Virgin wrapped in an embroidered shawl. The monastery is worth a visit because it is a place of absolute quiet, heartily recommended to anyone who would like to abandon, for a moment, the confusion of the beaches and relax in a flower-filled garden.

The gardens of the monasteries are always open to visitors in need of a rest

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Between beaches and mountain springs

Returning to the coast one passes through Kolimbia, one of the agricultural colonies planned by the Italians in the 1930s and which they called San Benedetto. Here nothing remains of the old farmhouses that once lined the avenue leading to the beach, even though the new holiday homes do vaguely recall the style of the older buildings. Of the previous period there remains only the church of Ayios Trifonas close behind the main road.

The dense vegetation at Epta Pighes has grown up thanks to the abundance of the spring waters

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For those who prefer an excursion into the woods we would recommend the ‘Seven Springs’, or Epta Pighes. Travelling through a forest of tall pines one arrives at a pleasant tavern with little tables dotted beneath the trees, and from here one can begin a fairly arduous climb along the course of a stream that is fed by seven springs. In times of drought there is little water, but this remains a very beautiful walk amidst a luxuriant nature. The Italian engineers dug a gallery out of the mountain to channel the waters of the Epta Pighes into a small lake from which still-visible aqueducts led as far as Kolimbia. 79

CHAPTER 3

THE CASTLES OF THE KNIGHTS AND THE DWELLING PLACE OF ZEUS

KRITINIA Mt ATAVYROS MONI ARTAMITI MONI THARRI MONOLITHOS

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The defensive system of the Knights of the Order of St John of Rhodes was extraordinarily thorough: every promontory and every spur of land – in themselves already natural defensive positions – both along the coast and inland, was utilized to build forts, castles and watchtowers, at times recouping the preexisting Byzantine structures. In the almost 200 years of the Knights’ rule, the fortifications were subjected to continual modifications, in line with the evolution of ever-more powerful war machines and new military strategies. Only one place was never touched by the Knights: the island’s highest mountain, Atavyros, which remained the exclusive domain of Zeus.

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Kamirou Skala and Kritinia

Kamirou Skala was probably the ancient port

The Lycian tomb

of Kritinia and today ferries still leave from here for the island of Chalki. On a rock-face behind the port one can see the façade of an imposing funerary monument with a great tympanon and two lateral niches, similar to the tombs of Lycia in Asia Minor. The state of repair is very poor and, given the rarity of this type of sepulchre on Rhodes, it merits greater consideration.

The little harbour of Kamirou

Beginning the climb towards Kritinia, in the distance one sees the Knights’ Fortress, isolated on the crest of a hill that dominates the coast of Kamirou. Erected in the fifteenth century by the Grand Master Orsini, it was enlarged in the sixteenth century by the Grand Masters d’Aubusson, d’Amboise and Del Carretto who had their family coats of arms sculpted on the external walls.

Castle of the Knights near Kritinia

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From the height of the towers it was possible to control a wide stretch of the coast, often infested with pirate ships. A system of beacons, with fires warning of imminent danger, linked the castle visually with the islands of Chalki, Alimia, Makri and even Simi. The fortress is one of the island’s bestconserved. Within it the Knights erected a church dedicated to Ayios Georgios, partly built with small quarried stones.

The castle of Kritinia with its imposing towers and battlements is one of the island’s best conserved and restored

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Ayios Ioannis Prodromos, small and intimate

The flower-filled village of Kritinia

The coastline at Kritinia

Continuing on upwards towards Mt Atavyros we visit the flower-filled village of Kritinia which owes its name to Crete (in Greek Kriti), because the Minoan prince Althaemenes was supposed to have landed on the coast here, fleeing the motherland in order to avoid killing his father Catreus, as had been prophesied by an oracle. But Catreus, missing his son, decided to visit Rhodes, and when his ship arrived at Kritinia in the middle of the night, in the blind darkness, he was mistaken for a pirate and killed – by his own son Althaemenes. Oracles never lie.

Outside the village, protected by ancient cypress trees, we find the little thirteenth-century church of Ayios Ioannis Prodomos. The oldest frescos have been covered by paintings from the sixteenth century, these too partly vanished and blackened by the smoke of the candles. A pretty road runs all the way round the Atavyros massif. The area’s most important town is Embonas, famous for its good wine, for cloth-making and for the dances and traditional costumes that are on show on feast days. At the end of the summer, after the grape harvest, one sees great cloths stretched out along the road: here what is left of the grapes after wine-making is set out to dry and then used, in the winter months, as nourishing fodder for the goats. Breathing in the heady perfume of these grape skins is almost as good as being offered a well-seasoned roast.

In the area around Embonas there are numerous vineyards making a very good wine

At the entrance to Kritinia a Folk Art Museum has been set up with a collection of tools and peasant furnishings, beautiful traditional costumes and handcrafted ceramics. 88

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Mt Atavyros The most ancient part of Moni Artamiti has been destroyed. The monastery church with its pretty iconostasis dates back to the nineteeth century.

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Circling around the eastern face of the mountain (the highest peak of which reaches 1216 metres), just below the level of the road one espies the bell tower of the Monastery of Artamiti. In the courtyard one is welcomed by a colony of cats who seem to be in charge of the monastery. The earliest structure is the church, dedicated to Ayios Ioannis, which dates back to the eleventh or twelfth century, but the numerous additions (like the graceful bell tower and the low monastic buildings) have altered its original aspect. On the inside, under a starspeckled vault, one can admire a lovely wooden iconostasis sculpted with icons of the patron saints.

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A little further on we arrive at the agricultural village of Ayios Isidoros where, just in front of the cemetery, one can visit the little white church of Ayios Georgios with remains of frescos.

On the bare mountain of Atavyros the vegetation is very scarse and whoever wants to make the climb on foot should bear in mind that there are no trees to offer any shade

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Continuing our tour of the mountain, right on a level with the turning for Kritinia and Embonas there begins the climb up towards Atavyros, along a dirt track suitable for cars. Even though there are no road signs, it should suffice to keep one’s eye on the mountain peak. The landscape is extraordinarily beautiful, the track brushes against great meadows dotted with low-growing Mediterranean vegetation which gradually disappears to make way for a luminous stony land with pointed and contorted boulders. Deep crevasses in the rocks and dark gorges score the Atavyros massif all the way to the summit, where the horizon opens out

and one begins to see the coast. The last stretch of the mountain is wire-fenced, but there is an opening through which one can pass. At that point, looking upwards, the eye is caught by a pile of ragged stones. Following ahead on foot towards those rocks, one realises that this is not a natural formation, but the work of human hands: we have arrived at the legendary Sanctuary of Zeus, built of great, squared blocks. Amid the jumbled ruins of the Temple of Zeus with some effort one can still make out the temenos and the square-cut blocks that mark the entrance

The temenos is still recognisable along with some of the stones of the columns, part of the plinth and the threshold at the entrance. Few places possess a magic like that of this imposing Temple of Zeus which, according to the legend, was erected by Althaemenes, 93

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mythical founder of Kamiros, to expiate the killing of his father, the king of Crete. Ancient authors like Pindar and Diodorus speak of the temple with admiration but also with fear, because it was said that in honour of Zeus human sacrifices were offered here.

On top of the walls that surround the sacred enclosure travellers through the ages have immortalised their passing, placing stones one atop another to form pointed cumuli, like the shepherds do to mark the movement of their flocks. In this way from a distance the temple has acquired something of the aspect of a miniature “Ankhor”. From this altitude one can see all of the island of Rhodes and on a particularly clear day it seems that one can make out the island of Crete.

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Moni Tharri

Starting once again from the road that runs round Atavyros, penetrating into the heart of the island, we continue on towards Laerma, following the course of an emerald-green torrent that digs out its bed between the rocks, creating a coil of extravagant forms. The Monastery of Taxiarchis Michail at Tharri (the oldest and most venerated of Rhodes) lies amidst a forest of pines. One legend tells that the monastery was founded on the exact spot in which an imperial princess of Constantinople dropped her ring, having arrived on Rhodes in the fourth century and here having recovered, miraculously, from a mortal illness.

Moni Tharri lies in a clearing in the middle of a pine forest

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The frescos at Moni Tharri date from the greatest period of Orthodox art, between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

In reality the Monastery was built at some time during the twelfth century, then enlarged and embellished right up until the sixteenth century. The katholikon, the monastery church with its drum-supported dome, possesses a precious large icon of the archangel Michael and a very beautiful iconostasis of inlaid wood. The work of decorating the church continued uninterrupted for almost 500 years, and includes more than 20 frescoed panels. They represent Christ’s miracles, a beautiful Last Supper and the life of the Virgin, as well as the Apostles and various saints. In the apse Christ appears represented as Christ the King, holding the letters OQN, meaning “He who is”. The monks who live in the monastery are directly subordinate to the ecumenical patriarchate of Constantinople and dedicate themselves mainly to the translation of sacred texts.

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The church was originally dedicated to Christos Sotir (Christ the Redeemer), but was successively consacrated to the Archangel Michael "Tharinos"

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Monolithos

Another romantic itinerary,

Glifada gorge

The Monolithos coast with the wide bay of Kerameni

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again starting out from the Atavyros region and this time going south, is that along the promontory which juts out towards the island of Chalki. After the village of Lakki, from which one reaches the lovely beach of Glifada, the road passes alongside the gorge of Glifada, formed of enormous, irregular sheets of rock, striped ochre and grey. During the dry months one can penetrate for quite a stretch into the narrow gorge which forms a fantastical scenery. From Glifada one can also take a path that leads to the foot of Mt Akramitis in a valley edged with conifers or, alternatively, choose the road on the opposite side of the mountain which passes through Siana and leads directly to the Castle of Monolithos with an incomparable view across the bay of Kerameni and the nearby islands.

Like the falcons that hover in the sky we can observe the castle from above, built on a solitary rocky spur (mono-lithos) at 300 metres above sea level. The castle already existed in the Byzantine era and was amplified and fortified in 1476 by the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes, Pierre d’Aubusson. Of the antique constructions there remain the external walls, a few buildings, cisterns, a chapel and the church of Ayios Panteleimon. Despite its name, the rock of Monolithos is not a “single stone” because, looking seaward in front of the Castle, one can see another rock, round and rough as a tortoise shell, emerging from the waters: this is the tiny, uninhabited island known as Little Strongoli.

The castle of the Knights seems to grow directly out of the rock

The miniscule little island of Strongoli

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Wind and water have sculpted the rocks on the beach

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Descending towards the sea one arrives, with some difficulty, at a small beach with cliffs animated by zoomorphic shapes: a horse seems to paw powerfully at the waves, the stones look like grotesque masks and the natural sculpture of a giant bird with an arched beak stares at the waters. On the highest rock we can see the remains of a wall that probably once belonged to an old watchtower. The path that flanks the beach passes in front of a series of grottoes and niches with graffiti (perhaps ancient tombs), and finishes in front of a little church dedicated to Ayios Georgios.

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CHAPTER 4

THE HISTORY OF THE GREAT AND MEMORIES OF HUMBLE BEAUTY

MONI TSAMBIKA ARCHANGELOS CHARAKI AYIA AGATHI MONI KAMIRI LINDOS ASKLIPIIO

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Fresco from the church of Kimissis tis Theodokou at Asklipiio

Our itinerary now moves across to the eastern side of the island, zigzagging between coast and mountains. Here there are important places like Lindos and Asklipiio with magnificent monuments, but also little churches, hidden away and all but forgotten.

The Lindos headland

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Moni Tsambika

Archanghelos

he little church of Panaghia Tsambika, also called “Our Lady on High”, sits like a bird’s nest on the summit of a pointed mountain. To visit it one needs a good pair of legs and a lot of puff because the final stretch of the climb consists of 300 steep steps, but once one has arrived at the top there is a spectacular view of the coast to be enjoyed. The church is a site of pilgrimage for married couples who desperately hope for children, and there are tales of numerous miracles worked by the Virgin, even for couples who are getting on in years. The little sacred icon of the Virgin, all gold, is nowadays preserved in a protective case in the large church which is part of the monastery at the foot of the mountain.

The little town of Archanghelos is a jumble of white houses, built one against another, stretching out at the foot of the fifteenth-century Castle of the Knights of the Order of St John. Built in the shape of a gigantic ship’s prow, the fortress has conserved a large part of its walls on which there are sculpted, in relief, the arms of the Spanish Grand Master Zacosta and of the Italian Grand Master Orsini. At one time Archanghelos was the most populous city on the island and today it still remains one of the most lively villages, animated and attractive. The houses are whitewashed every year and are embellished with brightly coloured decorations (sky blue, pink, yellow, turquoise) that form cornices and borders, curved or straight as a tensed string, and which follow the irregular lines of the lanes, the steps and the miniscule flower-filled courtyards. At the centre of the village there stands the large white church of Ayios Michail Archanghelos, with a very high bell tower (its dimensions out of proportion with the rest) in the middle of a wide courtyard paved with a mosaic of kochlakes.

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Tradition has is that on the mountain top an icon of the Virgin was found with an oil lamp burning beside it, and that it was on this spot that the monastery was founded

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Archanghelos with the castle of the Knights

The imposing bell tower of Archanghelos Michail

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Archanghelos has conserved the traditional atmosphere of the island: the whitewashed and coloured houses, the narrow alleyways, the little courtyards and the local craftsmen's workshops where the eye is caught by ceramics decorated with animals, flowers and geometric figures.

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In a small square in the upper part of Archanghelos there stands the cosy and intimate katholikon dedicated to Ayios Gavriel Patitiri, a fifteenth-century church that belonged to a monastery which no longer exists. The little chapel hides among the houses of the oldest part of Archanghelos and one does risk passing by without noticing it. Illuminated only by the votive candles, the church retains an aura of mystery, and only when the eye has adjusted to the darkness does one notice the well-made frescos. Also worthy of note is the church of Ayios Ioannis Prodromos in the highest part of the little town, with frescos from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries including a representation of a winged St John the Baptist who is unrolling a scroll.

At about a kilometre beyond Archanghelos on the left there begins a serpentine little road which finishes at the summit of Mt Profitis Ilias where the church of the same name stands. The mountain’s natural platform is scattered with sharp rocks, whilst along its edge one notices the remains of a crumbling wall. Here on the peak, surrounded by only wide empty space, one has the sensation of being master of the island, with a magnificent view 360 degrees around which ranges across from the coast to the inland hills.

The little church of Profitis Ilias stands on the summit of the eponymous mountain

Ayios Gavriel Patitiri is not the most important of the churches in Archanghelos, but it is a precious little gem

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Charaki amid churches and castle The fortress of Feraklos rises on the site of the acropolis of ancient Loryma, but no trace remains of the ancient city

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Our journey continues along the coast where, from far off, the Fortress of Feraklos can be seen above the little harbour of Charaki, with its turreted walls girding the entire hilltop. In ancient times the city of Loryma stood here, while the first castle was erected in the Byzantine period and conquered by the Knights of Rhodes as early as 1306, immediately upon their arrival on the island. With the castle they took possession of the entire feud – men, animals and lands – creating the so-called protaria, a legal right that sanctioned the total and sole ownership and which permitted the exercise of both civil and religious powers. The cellars of the Castle of Feraklos were used as a prison for those knights who had erred or disobeyed the rules of the Order. Looking at the strong external walls punctuated with tall bastions, one understands why Feraklos was famed as an impregnable stronghold, so much so that it resisted the attacks of the Ottomans right up until the end of 1522 when the rest of the island had already surrendered.

The fishing village of Charaki, beneath the castle, is built in the shape of an amphitheatre around the bay, with low cottages, little guesthouses and tiny taverns. It merits a prolonged stay for its enchanting position and its still crowd-free beaches: here calm and tranquillity reign, and the rhythm of village life is that of days-gone-by. Skirting around the rock of Feraklos one arrives at a lovely beach with fine sand; this too was an oasis of quiet until a few years ago – but now the first constructions in concrete are beginning to appear.

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Ayios Georgios Loryma and Moni Kamiri

Along a country road running

Graffiti on the rocks beside Ayia Agathi

The niches in the little church of Ayia Agathi have been carved out of the rock

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Camouflaged by some golden rocks, here we find the rock church of Ayia Agathi, used by the hermits who lived in the nearby grottoes in around the twelfth century. The apse is formed of two niches behind a screen of rock that acts as iconostasis. Hewn entirely from the rock, with remains of frescos, the church looks very much like a catacomb. On the rock face beside the church one notes some ancient graffiti representing Byzantine-Christian symbols and even some Jewish symbols like, for example, the image of a large menorah, the seven-branched sacred candlestick. What mysterious traveller wanted to leave these signs we will never know.

parallel to the large main road for Lindos, amid the bare land above a natural platform there hides the little fourteenthcentury church of Ayios Georgios Loryma. The frescos are in part antique, but unfortunately an inexpert hand has effected some “restoration” – especially on the faces of the saints – which contrasts with the precious original painting. In front of the icon of Ayios Georgios, wrapped in his red cape, the devout have hung fragile little horses woven of straw that swing, feather-light, in the semi-darkness of the church.

Recent additions are clearly visible in the frescos

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In the courtyard of the monastery of Kamiri a great table and numerous chairs await the arrival of pilgrims

Another road leads, instead, towards the hills, following the course of a dry riverbed as far as a high plain where there stands the Monastery of Kamiri, one of the most silent and atmospheric places on Rhodes. Enclosed within the shell of its own high walls, the monastery has retained all its antique beauty: the monks’ cells built around a great kochlakespaved courtyard, the old well and an outdoor hearth surmounted by a beam of sculpted marble. The katholikon preserves some sixteenth-century frescos, while on the righthand wall there appears a large icon with the archangel Michael clothed in a suit of brilliant gold armour.

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Returning to the main road we can pay a visit to one of the most ancient relics of the history of Rhodes: the Mycenaean necropolis of Pilona, which is reached via a path that begins at the entrance to the village and winds through the fields. The necropolis is formed of six tombs from the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries B.C., which, because they were never plundered, have yielded a great quantity of valuable finds: pottery, idols, jewellery and a rhyton bearing the image of the “Master of Animals”, one of the most important divinities in the Mycenaean pantheon. For those who would prefer not to seek out the modest remains of the tombs, we recommend a visit to Pilona’s two churches – Ayia Kira and Ayios Georgios – with interesting frescos.

Both the courtyard and the floor of the church are covered with pebble mosaics

Mycenaean tomb at Pilona

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Lindos sacred and profane

According to the legend, the ancient city of Lindos was founded by the son of Hercules, Tlepolemos, who had been exiled from the Peloponnese to Rhodes following an involuntary homicide. Homer mentions Tlepolemos in the Iliad as fighting alongside the Trojans and tells that he was killed by Sarpedon. 120

In reality Lindos, the largest of the three Rhodian city-states, dates back to around 1000 B.C. when the Dorians arrived here. In the eighth century B.C. it became the most important maritime centre along the route travelled by the merchant ships between the Orient and the West. In order to further extend their sphere of influence, the inhabitants of Lindos arrived as far as Sicily where they founded Agrigento and Gela. The Archaic period is held to be that of Lindos’s greatest splendour, when it was governed by the enlightened tyrant Kleoboulos (one of the Seven Sages of ancient Greece) who had the first Temple of Athene Lindia erected on the acropolis. In the sixth to fifth century B.C. the city joined the amphiktiones (religious confederation) with Ialysos, Kamiros, Kos, Halicarnassos and Knidos. The Persian invasion of the fifth century B.C. led to the slow decline of the city which nevertheless remained an important religious and cultural centre, especially in the Hellenistic era. 121

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The acropolis and the city The acropolis of Lindos rises above the sea as though it is held up by the rocks themselves and (as a Hellenistic epigram has it) could fall seaward should the gods but wish so. In the sixth century the Byzantines built a fortress here which was conquered by the Knights of the Order of St John in 1312. Under the government of Pierre d’Aubusson, at the end of the fifteenth century, the Palace of the Grand Master was erected on the acropolis and now marks the entrance to the archaeological area.

Stone relief representing a ship

Climbing the steps up to the Palace of the Knights we pass a relief representing an enormous trireme, carved into the rock in around the second century B.C.. On the small plinth in front of it in ancient times there stood the statue of the Rhodian admiral Aghesandros, work of the sculptor Pythocretos Timocharis, author of the celebrated Nike of Samothrace now in the Louvre.

The gate of the Knights' castle and the Byzantine church

Through the Palace of the Knights we can see an imposing Hellenistic stoa with cisterns, while to the right we find a Byzantine basilica. Beyond the vast stoa we enter the Sanctuary of Athene which occupies almost the entire platform of the acropolis. The Doric sanctuary was destroyed by a fire in the fourth century B.C. and rebuilt in the Hellenistic era with 122

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The stairway to the Propylaea

magnificent Propylaea, a monumental stairway and a portico with two wings of columns that leads into the Temple, the sacred dwelling place of Athene Lindia. In comparison with the grandiose constructions that lead up to it, the temple is of surprisingly modest dimensions.

The monumental stairway and the Hellenistic portico

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In the area surrounding the acropolis we can visit several monuments that were once part of the ancient city. First and foremost the Greek Theatre from the fourth century B.C., cut out of the rocky slope and capable of holding up to 2,000 spectators. Above its tiered seating there once stood a little Temple of Dionysus, to whose cult the Tetrastoon was also dedicated, this being a colonnaded courtyard where the feasts in honour of the god took place.

The Greek theatre from the fourth century B.C., cut into the rocks

The so-called Tomb of Kleoboulos (the tyrant, in reality, was not buried here) faces onto the bay of Pallade and is built in the form of a tholos with great squared blocks. Another monumental tomb, that of Archocrates, who was priest of the Sanctuary of Athene at the beginning of the third century B.C., is to be found on the hill of Krana and is partly hewn from the rock. At the time of the knights this sepulchre was converted into a church and given the name Frankoekklesia. Meanwhile, on the Viglia promontory the remains of an ancient Boukopion are to be found (where the sacrifice of bulls took place) whilst lower down there is a grotto dedicated to Linthia, a divinity from Asia Minor predating the cult of Athene.

Tomb of Kleoboulos

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Seen from above the city of Lindos looks like a white bracelet girding the acropolis, with its little streets and courtyards paved with kochlakes that shine like pearls. Together with Rhodes it is the island’s most-visited town, for its houses and palaces with monumental doorways and relief-decorated façades. Among the churches one should not miss visiting the Panaghia, in the centre of the town, with noteworthy frescos from the fifteenth century.

An elaborately decorated seventeenth-century house

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Asklipiio

Hovering above the little town of Asklipiio,

Reading the names of the saints to whom the churches are dedicated one begins to learn one’s way through the calendar of Orthodox saints, from Ayios Georgios to Ayios Zaccharias, from Ayii Cosmas and Damianos to Ayia Irini, from Ayios Ioannis to Ayios Demetrios, and so on.

The little churches often house the remains of antique frescos, or have been redecorated in neo-Byzantine style

which overlooks the immense bed of a river of pebbles that winds like a gigantic grey serpent through the valley, there rises the Castle of the Knights of Rhodes, which seems to be born out of the rock. The fortress, with its great circular tower, was constructed in the fifteenth century to protect the population from brigands.

Castle of the Knights, above Asklipiio

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The valley beneath hides amid its fields a myriad of little churches, indicated by the road signs that do help a little in getting one’s bearings among the labyrinth of pathways. They are almost all chapels with only one room, their exteriors modest, but their interiors preserving frescos that at times are unsophisticated pieces of folk art, at others paintings of great quality.

The town of Asklipiio is an agglomerate of white houses with flat roofs that give them a very oriental appearance. The town’s jewel is the church of Kimissis tis Theotokou (the Death – or Dormition – of the Virgin) which stands high in the town, with its triple façade. The central door leads into the oldest of the naves of the church of Kimissis tis Theotokou

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The central nave of the church

The little museum attached to the church displays holy relics, icons and antique manuscripts

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The centre of the church, in the form of a Latin cross and covered entirely with very precious frescos, is also its most ancient part, dating back to the fourteenth century. The fresco cycles adopt the usual compositional pattern of Byzantine-Orthodox art, but their expressiveness, their colours and their treatment of the sacred themes reveal the originality and the passion of the artists who created this work of extraordinary beauty. Walking in the nave one has the impression of being enveloped in a great Holy Book: here there are the stories of Christ, of Mary, of the saints and of their miracles, the cycle of the Creation of the World in which God holds up an enormous iris and separates the heavens from the darkness. Some of the biblical stories are very beautiful, including a cruel Expulsion from Paradise and an expressive Sacrifice of Isaac, and we see luminous armies of angels, but also the legions of the Devil. The cycle illustrating the Apocalypse of St. John is very interesting, and features some terrifying details like the Beast with Seven Heads, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and the demons and the tortures of hell.

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Angels with trumpets announcing the Apocalypse

Scenes from Genesis: Adam and Eve taste the forbidden fruit

The prophet Daniel with the angel

A scene from Genesis: God finds Adam and Eve after they have eaten the forbidden fruit

A scene from the Apocalypse: Death on horseback chased by a group of the Saved

CHAPTER 5

SAINTS AND PIRATES THE MOUNTAINS AND THE SEA

AYIOS GEORGIOS O VARDAS AYIA IRINI PROFILIA AYIOS PAVLOS PRASONISSI

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Apolakkia and the churches nearby

The artificial lake of Siana

Ayios Mamas, the pipe-playing patron saint of shepherds and of their flocks) and an evocative Entry into Jerusalem. In the apse the Blessed Virgin appears with the archangels, while on both sides of the nave we can see stories from the life of Christ and, above the door, the Death of the Virgin.

On the way out of the village of Siana a dirt

Ayios Giorgios o Vardas has some very beautiful frescos

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track descends steeply towards the valley, creeping through a landscape made up of low, dark-barked bushes that stand out like black paper silhouettes against the almost-white and dusty soil. At the bottom of the valley a dam has been constructed creating a muddy-shored lake whose waters are an unnatural turquoise. Arriving at Apolakkia, it is not easy to find the many churches dotted among sown fields and copses: rare road signs give vague directions, but it is, nonetheless, worth the effort. The church of Ayios Georgios o Vardas, founded in the thirteenth century, is to be found in a woodland clearing: the Byzantine frescos are among the oldest on the island and, even though some pieces are now missing, they preserve lovely images of the saints (among them

Following a path that runs almost parallel to that for Ayios Georgios o Vardas, and crossing the bed of a dry river, one arrives at the little church of Assomaton Ayii Michail and Gavriel with remains of frescos and a beautiful wooden iconostasis. Once back on the asphalted road, a few kilometres ahead one can follow the sign for Ayios Ioannis, a lovely Byzantine church with fourteenth to fifteenth century frescos. 139

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the floor of the central nave one notes the remains of peacock-shaped mosaics. Ayia Irini was striped of its treasures at the time of the knights and two of its columns were incorporated into the courtyard of the Palace of the Grand Master in Rhodes City. Profilia

Every one of the early-Christian churches has met with destruction and many architectural fragments have been removed and reused

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Even if scant, the ruins of the early Christian basilica dedicated to Ayia Irini are very interesting. On the road for Arnitha a sign seems to point generically towards the cultivated fields and in effect one does have to scramble along the ruts of the ploughed land until some ruins become visible on a little rise. This basilica – which was originally divided into three churches – was once one of the most important sacred buildings on Rhodes, dating back to the sixth or seventh century. The outer walls, part of the apse and a large baptistery in the shape of a four-leaved clover all survive. Rising from the ground there are some marble columns and fragments of capitals, while on

A road, all curves, climbs back up from the valley towards the village of Istrios and then drops again towards Profilia with its white houses lying on the slope of the hill like lizards in the sun. In the cemetery at the entrance to the village there stands the large church of Christ’s Nativity, neither ancient nor modern, but nevertheless attractive thanks to the recent frescos that illuminate the nave with a symphony of bright colours. Decorated by the hand of an artist who has learnt the lessons of The Byzantine tradition of painting has survived up to our own times: a good example is offered by the frescos of the large church at Profilia

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The quire, which was once reserved for the womenfolk, has now fallen into disuse

Niche with Byzantine inscription in Ayios Georgios

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the old Byzantine painters well, the church’s images respect the Byzantine tradition and it is an excellent example of the unchanging continuity of Orthodox religious art through the centuries. The entire floor is covered with kochlakes mosaics. The church still possesses a quire (once reserved for the womenfolk) in which some carefully polished vessels have been placed along with a few chairs and a wooden cross. But Profilia’s most beautiful church is the tiny church of Ayios Georgios, built in the sixteenth century on a mound at the edge of the village. It might seem strange, but the entrance is to be found up against a welcoming tavern which serves delicious home-baked bread, very nice wine and good traditional cooking. The church’s frescos are, in part, well preserved and respect the classical iconography which includes Christ and the Madonna, and the soldier saints Michail and Georgios – one on a red horse, the other on his white charger. Getting onto one’s knees it is possible to admire an unusual scene – a young

woman spinning wool, her spindle held high and beside her a wicker cradle. Perhaps this loving scene of country life was once part of the representation of the Nativity of the Virgin.

The church furnishings are poor, but the frescos are noteworthy

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The altar that can be seen behind the iconostasis is formed of a column taken from an archaeological site

Between Vati and Gennadi

Along the road that links the western and eastern coasts of the island the landscape is dotted with little churches, their plaster snowy white, and it is well worth visiting a few. The religious buildings, even when modest, are almost always set within a very beautiful natural frame, and even when their frescoes have all but disappeared, the decoration of their interiors has a theatrical charm of its own. The little church of Ayios Ioannis Prodromos crowns a small hill close to the road. In its single room we can see a wooden iconostasis which hides an altar in the apse, formed of an antique column and a marble slab.

The small church of Profitis Ilias also has the same type of altar, taken from an older building, but here it is painted a bluish grey like the iconostasis. Between the coast and the inland hills, between Gennadi, Lachania and Arnitha, there is a myriad of similar little churches to be discovered, sometimes frescoed and with stones salvaged from more ancient buildings.

Even the smallest of the churches conserves beautiful images that render it particular

The crystal-clear waters of the Gennadi coast

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Ayios Pavlos

Halfway along the road that

The church and bell tower of Ayios Pavlos

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cuts clean across the tip of the island from Kattavia to Hochlakas, the eye is drawn by a singular monumental complex in a bare landscape: this is Ayios Pavlos, which at the time of the Italian occupation was christened San Marco. The explanation is simple: on Rhodes the Italians decided to create a series of agricultural settlements modelled on the rural colonies founded by the Fascist regime back home. So at the end of the thirties the village of San Marco/Ayios Pavlos was born, with a large, cloistered church, a school, warehouses, granaries, factories and farmhouses.

The clock on the bell tower is stopped at 4.00 pm, the hour of the collapse, when, in 1942, the settlement was abandoned in fret and fury following the first Allied bombings. To reclaim the flat and arid ground, where in the summer one sweats beneath a baking sun and in the winter there blows a diabolic wind, Tuscan peasants were settled here – experts in the clearing and hoeing of uncultivated land. Now the complex lies crumbling along the side of the road and in the immense church, with its high vault that still bears the traces of a faded sky blue, the birds make their nests. The plots of agricultural land are still divided into rigid squares, each with its own farmhouse, some still partly in use as stables or for storing tools.

The nave of the church of Ayios Pavlos, totally abbandoned

Isolated farmhouses are still to be found dotted among the fields

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In the distance one can see the spectral outline of what was once a silk factory: now there is nothing behind its monumental gateway, only rusty tubes that creak with every gust of wind.

The gateway to the disused silk factory. Here the silkworms were farmed and the silk was spun, but the fabric was woven in Rhodes.

The impetuous force of the wind that blows on this part of the island is perhaps the reason why the beautiful beach of dunes running along this stretch of coast has not been made use of for tourism. The uncontaminated beach of Ayios Georgios, which extends for kilometres beyond the fields, seems unreal, with no sign of humans, buildings or even tents, furrowed only by the ephemeral tracks of animals which soon vanish beneath the eddies of fine sand.

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The Kattavia coast

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topping off at Kattavia, we can reach the thirteenth-century church of Kimissis tis Theotokou which stands in the cemetery, hidden between tall cypresses. The noteworthy frescoes, which date back to the seventeenth century, include an unusual representation of the Apocalypse.

The road runs along an endless beach, empty and uninhabited. Amid dunes and pebbles, the coast here transmits a sense of infinite solitude and even of sadness: the shore is a mass of detritus brought by the sea which often roars angrily here, lifting up gigantic waves. Broken sticks, tins and pieces of plastic make a desolate scene of this beach, so beautiful when seen from far off.

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The Prassonissi lighthouse on the furthest point of the island

The black ship-like rock that seems to float amid the waves

Half-covered by the soil, fragments of the marbles of Ayia Anastasia Zanara protrude from the terrain

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Looking towards the horizon one notes the compact outline of a black rock with strange peaks that suggest the shape of a phantom ship at the mercy of the waves. One legend tells that this rocky island really was once a pirate ship, turned, by some divine hand, to stone when the corsairs prepared to land on the coast in order to attack the Monastery of Skiadi. Following the coastal road between fields of melons and watermelons, a short deviation leads to the few remains of the early Christian basilica dedicated to Ayia Anastasia Zonara, now almost swallowed by the terrain. Between brushwood and brambles one recognises the apse, some capitals, marble slabs from the plinths and panels bearing religious inscriptions and reliefs. Unfortunately this is the fate met by many early Christian buildings: once the archaeological excavations are over the site drops back into sleep, left, by man’s carelessness, to the wind and the rain.

Prassonissi

The Prassonissi peninsula is linked to the mainland by an isthmus of golden sand which can be crossed on foot but… during the tourist season it seems instead to be a racetrack for four-wheel-drives. Here windsurfers meet up along with enthusiasts of other water- (and acrobatic) sports, enticed by the strong wind and by the waves. To get away from the confusion one has to climb up above the promontory as far as the lighthouse, built hanging over the open sea where the waves foam against the rocks.

The Prassonissi isthmus, lapped by the waves

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Chronology 5th millennium B.C. 3rd millennium B.C. 2nd millennium B.C. 1000 - 500 B.C.

5th - 4th century B.C. 4th - 3rd century B.C.

Late Neolithic Age, first cave settlements First contacts with the Minoans of Crete Arrival of the Achaian-Mycenaeans Dorian and Archaic periods; creation of the three city-states Lindos, Kamiros and Ialysos; dictatorship of Kleoboulos Classical period; maritime trade flourishes; foundation of Rhodes in 408 B.C. Hellenistic period; apex of the island’s artistic splendour; Rhodes boasts a population of 80,000

2nd century B.C. – 3rd century A.D.

Roman period; St Paul arrives on the island; initial diffusion of Christianity 4th century A.D.-1309

1309-1522

1523-1912

1911-1923 1923-1943

1943-1946

1947

Byzantine period; conflicts with Persians and Saracens; Venetian and Genoese trading posts Rule of the Knights of the Order of St John of Jerusalem; Rhodes becomes the principal centre of commerce between East and West Ottoman rule; Greeks, Turks and Jews live on the island; from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century conflicts with the Turkish authorities Italian-Turkish war on the island; the Italians occupy Rhodes The island is governed by the Italians; restoration of many monuments and important construction projects undertaken The Germans occupy the island; deportation of Jews and Greek dissidents to the concentration camps; in 1945 the Germans surrender to the British army Rhodes is annexed to Greece 157

Glossary TEXT

Acropolis Agora Amphiktiones Ayios – Ayia Baptistery Cavea Gymnasium Iconostasis

Hamam Katholikon Kafenion Kochlakes Kouros Medresse Mihrab Odeon Panaghia Platia Propylae Qibla Stoa Temenos Tholos

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ancient citadel, the highest part of a Greek city centre of public life, marketplace religious confederation protecting places of worship Saint, holy chapel containing the baptismal font semicircular tiered seating in Greek theatres (auditorium) ancient school for gymnastics and the study of music and the written word dividing screen (in wood or stone) that separates the altar from the nave in Orthodox churches Turkish baths church or chapel within a monastery coffeehouse mosaic of river pebbles, typical of both interior and exterior paving on Rhodes archaic male nude statue, youth koranic school attached to a mosque the niche in a mosque reserved for the prayer leader small theatre for concerts and lectures the Blessed Virgin town square monumental entranceway with columns and porticos in the mosque it indicates the direction of Mecca rectangular portico sacred precinct circular tomb with a conical roof

JUDITH LANGE PHOTOGRAPHS

JUDITH LANGE - MARIA STEFOSSI DESIGN - LAYOUT

MARIA STEFOSSI ENGLISH TRANSLATION

JULIA MACGIBBON COLOR SEPARATION - PRINTING - BINDING

BIBLIOSYNERGATIKI S.A.

The authors Judith Lange is a journalist, photographer and painter, Maria Stefossi is a photographer, graphic artist and editor. Both are great travellers. They have published numerous books together, among the most recent of which are: Ancient Theatres, Ancient Stadia, Crete, Mani, Drama , Humble Beauty and Discover the unknown Crete.

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