Rhodes, Greece

While in Fethiye, we took the ferry over to the Greek island of Rhodes (Rodos) for a weekend. It was spectacular! The castle and walls are like something out of a fairytale. Most of the old town that you see today was built by the Knights of the Order of St. John in the 13th – 15th centuries.

The Knights of St. John have an interesting history… Basically, they started as merchants from Italy that went to Jerusalem. While there, they established a church and a hospital to care for the sick and poor and for pilgrims. They ended up hiring knights to protect them and the pilgrims they were caring for. the knights ended up becoming hospitallers and the whole order became militarized. Once Jerusalem was conquered by Islamic forces in 1292, they went to Cyprus. In 1310, they bought Rhodes and started building the castle and fortifying walls. They ruled as a sovereign state and dominated much of the eastern Mediterranean. In 1523, the Ottoman Empire drove the knights out of Rhodes and they moved on to Malta. Today, they are known under a few different variations of the name, and have soverign diplomatic relations with over 100 countries.

We really enjoyed walking around the old town. With only 2 days to explore, we unfortunately didn’t get to explore the rest of the island. Here are some photos of Rhodes’ beautiful old town: