Grand Master Palace

The Palace of the Grand Master rises within Rhodes' Old Town on a site first fortified as a Byzantine citadel in the late 7th century, reputedly on ground once occupied by an ancient temple to the sun god Helios. Everything changed in 1309, when the Knights Hospitaller seized Rhodes and converted the stronghold into their administrative headquarters and the residence of their Grand Master, expanding and reinforcing it through the early 14th century.

After the Ottoman conquest of 1522 the palace served as a military command post, until a catastrophic accident intervened: in 1856, lightning struck a gunpowder store beneath the nearby Church of Saint John, and the resulting explosion collapsed most of the palace's upper floors, leaving only the ground-level rooms standing. It was rebuilt between 1937 and 1940 under Italian rule by architect Vittorio Mesturino, a restoration later criticised by historians for taking liberties with the original design.

In 1988 the palace, together with the rest of the medieval city, was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and it now operates as a museum drawing millions of visitors each year. Given its central position by the Old Town harbour, many visitors combine a day of sightseeing with a private gulet charter from Rhodes.