Fortifications of Rhodes

Fortifications of Rhodes
Rhodes, Greece
View of the fortifications of Rhodes
Map of the fortifications of Rhodes
Type	City wall
Site information
Condition	Mostly intact
Site history
Built	Antiquity–16th century
Built by	Byzantine Empire Knights Hospitaller
In use	Antiquity–1522
Battles/wars	Siege of Rhodes (1444) Siege of Rhodes (1480) Siege of Rhodes (1522)
Events	1481 Rhodes earthquake
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Type	Cultural
Criteria	ii, iv, v
Designated	1988 (12th session)
Part of	Medieval old town of Rhodes
Reference no.	493
Region	Europe and North America

The fortifications of the town of Rhodes are shaped like a defensive crescent around the medieval town and consist mostly of a 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.^[1][2]

Like most of the defensive walls, they were built with a technique^[3] called rubble masonry which allows for a great mass capable of withstanding gunshots with smooth external stone faces to prevent climbing.

The defence of different portions of fortifications was assigned to different Langue (tongues) 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 (Spanish and Portuguese), the Langue of Germany (English and German), and the Langue of Italy. Bastions and terrepleins still hold the name of the langue involved (e.g. Bastion of Italy, terreplein of Spain).