page_title: Fortifications of Rhodes
section_title: The medieval town of Rhodes
hierarchical_section_title: Fortifications of Rhodes / The medieval town of Rhodes
caption_attribution_description: English: A quiet street in the old town of Rhodes. A picture of the Avenue of the Knights in Rhodes, Rhodes.
context_page_description: The fortifications of the town of Rhodes are shaped like a defensive crescent around the medieval town and consist mostly in a modern fortification composed of a huge wall made of an embankment encased in stone, equipped with scarp, bastions, moat, counterscarp and glacis. The portion of fortifications facing the harbour is instead composed of a crenellated wall. On the moles towers and defensive forts are found.
  They were built by the Knights Hospitaller of Saint John by enhancing the existing Byzantine walls starting from 1309, the year in which they took possession of the island after a three-year struggle.
  Like most of the defensive walls they were built with a technique called rubble masonry which allows for a great mass capable of withstanding the gunshots with smooth external stone faces to avoid climbing.
  The defence of different portions of fortifications was assigned to different Langue of Knights. The North face was under the rule of the Grand Master, then moving West and South the posts were held by the Langue of France and Alvernia, the Langue of Spain, the Langue of Germany, and the Langue of Italy. Bastions and terrepleins still hold the name of the langue involved.
context_section_description: Contained within the Fortifications of Rhodes is the largest active medieval town in Europe, with over 6,000 inhabitants. The medieval town, as well as being part of the UNESCO world heritage site, is also a major tourism attraction. The medieval town (Παλαιά Πόλη) contains a number of sites, including the clock-tower, Socrates Square, the Jewish Square, the old Haman, Suleiman Mosque Socrates Street, the Street of the Knights, and the Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes.
  The medieval town contains a number of different architectural styles, due to its history. The town mostly developed under the Knights of St John, which accounts for its predominantly Gothic architecture. However, after the second Siege of Rhodes the medieval town was also developed in the Ottoman era. New buildings were constructed including: mosques, public baths and mansions for the new patrons. The architectural significance of Rhodes, is summarised by UNESCO when it states: "with its Frankish and Ottoman buildings the old town of Rhodes is an important ensemble of traditional human settlement, characterized by successive and complex phenomena of acculturation. Contact with the traditions of the Dodecanese changed the forms of Gothic architecture, and building after 1523 combined vernacular forms resulting from the meeting of two worlds with decorative elements of Ottoman origin. All the built-up elements dating before 1912 have become vulnerable because of the evolution in living conditions and they must be protected as much as the great religious, civil and military monuments, the churches, monasteries, mosques, baths, palaces, forts, gates and ramparts."
  The medieval town of Rhodes, has been the set of a number of movies, including The Guns of Navarone.
caption: The Avenue of the Knights.
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