Street of the Knights, Rhodes (must see)

The Street of the Knights is lined with the former inns of the Knights Hospitaller, each once housing members of a specific langue of the Order. The street is widely regarded as one of the best-preserved medieval streets in Europe, notable for the coherence of its architecture and its limited later alteration. The buildings on both sides are constructed primarily of local limestone, carefully dressed to present a unified and imposing facade that remains consistent from start to finish.

At the upper end of the street, immediately after leaving the Palace of the Grand Master, the route is visually anchored by a stone archway spanning the roadway, marking the transition from the palace complex into the residential quarter of the Knights. As you proceed downhill along the center of the street, the facades are punctuated by small square windows set high in the walls and arched doorways at ground level, proportioned to admit mounted riders or carts. Along the way, carved coats of arms, inscriptions, and commemorative plaques appear on both sides, identifying individual patrons and phases of construction as you continue toward the lower town.

Roughly halfway down the street, the Inn of France comes into view on your left-hand side. Continuing toward the lower end of the street, look across to your left to see a small enclosed garden with an Ottoman fountain. This garden forms part of the courtyard of the 15th-century Villaragut Mansion, restored in 2002. The courtyard is generally closed to the public and accessible only on special occasions or through institutional arrangements. Near the lower end of the street, on the north side, the route opens toward the Archaeological Museum of Rhodes, housed in the former Knights’ Hospital.

During the day, as you walk this stretch, the street is heavily trafficked by visitors and tour groups, which can obscure its original function as a ceremonial and administrative route linking the Knights’ residences to the Palace of the Grand Master. In the evening, with fewer people moving along the route, the architectural sequence, from palace to inns to lower town, becomes easier to read, clearly revealing the street’s original role within the medieval city.