Rhodes Old Town Self-Guided Walking Audio Tour

The walk stop by stop: the d'Amboise Gate, the Street of the Knights, Hippocrates Square, the Clock Tower

12 stops · about 25 min walking · start: D'Amboise Gate · finish: Clock Tower

The first stop is the d'Amboise Gate in the north-west walls, reached by the stone bridge over the moat. Saint Anthony's Gate follows, then the Palace of the Grand Master and the Street of the Knights, running down towards the harbour past the Archaeological Museum in the old Hospital of the Knights. The Sea Gate, Hippocrates Square and the ruins of the Church of Our Lady of the Burgh come next, then the Square of the Jewish Martyrs, named in memory of the Jews of Rhodes deported in 1944, and the Ibrahim Pasha Mosque. Sokratous Street climbs to the Mosque of Suleiman, and the Clock Tower ends the walk. Another opening stop or another order is set in the app, and no stop needs an entry ticket.

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1. 

   1D'Amboise GateStart

   This gate in the north-west of the walls was built in 1512 under Grand Master Emery d'Amboise, and his coat of arms is set above the entrance. You cross the wide dry moat on a stone bridge and follow a bending passage, designed to slow down attackers, towards the Palace of the Grand Master.

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2. 

   2Saint Anthony's Gate

   Saint Anthony's Gate is the inner gate on the way from the d'Amboise Gate to the Palace of the Grand Master. It belongs to the layered defences the Knights of St John built on the landward side, where attackers who broke through the outer gate still faced walls, a narrow passage and another gate.

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3. 

   3Palace of the Grand Master

   The Knights of St John built this fortress-palace in the 14th century as the seat of their Grand Master. It was badly damaged by a gunpowder explosion in 1856, and the Italian authorities rebuilt it in the late 1930s, so its medieval look is largely a reconstruction.

4. 

   4Street of the Knights

   This straight cobbled street, about 200 metres long, runs from the Palace down towards the harbour along the line of an ancient road. Here stood the inns of the Order's national groups, the Tongues, and you can still spot coats of arms on façades such as the Inn of France.

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5. 

   5Archaeological Museum

   The museum is housed in the Hospital of the Knights, a large Gothic building of the 15th century with an arcaded courtyard where the Order cared for sick pilgrims. Its best-known exhibit is a Hellenistic marble statue of Aphrodite kneeling as she bathes.

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6. 6Sea Gate

   Built in 1478 under Grand Master Pierre d'Aubusson, the Sea Gate was the town's main entrance from the commercial harbour, with two round towers flanking an arch once closed by a portcullis. Above the seaward opening a worn relief shows the Virgin between John the Baptist and Saint Peter, over the arms of the Order, of France and of d'Aubusson. Bombing in the Second World War took off the top of the north tower, which was rebuilt in 1951.

7. 

   7Hippocrates Square

   Hippocrates Square, at the lower end of Sokratous Street, is one of the busiest meeting points in the Old Town. On one side stands the Castellania, built by the Knights in the early 16th century as a commercial court and exchange, with an outside staircase leading to its upper floor.

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8. 8Ruins of the Church of Our Lady of the Burgh

   The Knights of St John built this Gothic church in the fourteenth century in the Burgh, the merchants' quarter outside their own walled Collachium. It was a three-aisled basilica roughly 30 metres long and 14 metres wide, with side chapels added along its walls over time. Bombing in the Second World War left it a ruin, and the three apses of its east end still stand to their full height above the lanes around them.

9. 

   9Square of the Jewish Martyrs

   This square lies in the old Jewish quarter, La Juderia, and is named in memory of the Jews of Rhodes deported by the Nazis in 1944, most of whom died in Auschwitz. A memorial stands at one corner, and in the middle of the square a fountain is decorated with bronze seahorses.

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10. 

    10Ibrahim Pasha Mosque

    This mosque dates from the 16th century, soon after the Ottomans took Rhodes in 1522, and is named after Ibrahim Pasha, grand vizier of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. It is one of the oldest mosques in the town, and its slim minaret rises above the surrounding houses.

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11. 11Mosque of Suleiman

    The pink-plastered mosque at the top of Sokratous Street is named after Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, who took Rhodes from the Knights in 1522. The present building dates from the early 19th century, and its minaret is a landmark of the Old Town skyline.

12. 

    12Clock TowerFinish

    The Clock Tower, or Roloi, was built in the mid-19th century during Ottoman rule on the site of an older tower of the fortifications. It stands on one of the highest points of the Old Town, close to the Mosque of Suleiman, and its clock rises above the rooftops.