Palace of the Grand Master

The Palace of the Grand Master crowns the medieval town of Rhodes, at the head of the Street of the Knights. Built by the Knights Hospitaller of St. John after they took the island in 1309, it served as the administrative centre and residence of their Grand Master and as a fortress within the city's walls. Following the Ottoman conquest of 1522 it was used as a prison and later damaged, and much of its present appearance results from a heavy Italian reconstruction in the 1930s. Its halls display Roman and early Christian mosaic floors brought from Kos and elsewhere.

As a fortress that saw sieges, imprisonment and centuries of turnover, the palace attracts the usual stories of a brooding atmosphere and shadowy figures in its stone chambers. These impressions are anecdotal and subjective, part of the ambience of a great medieval castle rather than anything demonstrable.

The palace is the most significant monument of the Knights' period on Rhodes and a centrepiece of the walled medieval town, itself a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Today it functions as a museum, with permanent exhibitions on ancient and medieval Rhodes, and remains one of the Dodecanese's principal cultural attractions.

The Palace of the Grand Master is open to the public as a museum managed by the Greek Ministry of Culture, with permanent exhibitions on the history of Rhodes and its mosaic-floored halls to explore. It lies within the medieval old town, itself freely walkable.

Admission is ticketed, with an e-ticket option, and opening hours differ between summer and winter and on public holidays. Checking the official listing before visiting is advisable, and the site involves stone stairs and uneven surfaces typical of a medieval castle.