A Rhodes history tour

Rhodes — our 6th and final island of this month-long tour in Greece. Rhodes was the only island that I had visited before. Ferda and I arrived by ferry from Heraklion and met Ferda’s parents who arrived on the ferry from Fethiye. It was her father’s first time out of Turkey. We walked together to the bus station and went straight to Lindos the same day they arrived.

In the top right of that photo (above) is the Lindos acropolis, “a natural citadel which was fortified successively by the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Knights of St John and the Ottomans” (wikipedia). Here’s another view of the acropolis from the north.

Can we actually see anything from the Hellenistic period? Perhaps this theater?

We enjoyed walking the narrow lanes of Lindos, a smaller tuned-down version of Fira, Oia, or Dubrovnik.

At some historic sites we find old Roman doors. Could any of Lindos’ pretty doors actually be that old?

If we’re seeing crosses, then I guess it could be late Roman or more accurately (?) Byzantine.

For Byzantine for sure we rented a car and drove to the village of Asklipion to visit the 13th century Kimisis tis Theotokou church. Somehow I don’t have any photos of the outside, but the frescoes are as good as any Ferda and I saw in Ohrid or Thessaloniki, “a mini version of Peç in Kosovo,” according to my notes. I’m probably exaggerating, but it’s sad you can’t see anything in İstanbul (aka Byzantium) so well-preserved.

We celebrated that find with lunch in Monolithos.

I wrongly thought the Venetians were next as they became rich from trade in the eastern Mediterranean and controlled Corfu, Methoni, Kithira (aka Kythira), Crete, and Cyprus — but, as it turns out, not Rhodes (see Jan Morris’ The Venetian Empire for details). That honor goes to the Knights Hospitaller (aka the Knights of St John) who ruled Rhodes from 1310 to 1522 (you might be familiar with them from Malta, but that was later). They’re the ones we can thank for Rhodes’ extensive walls/fortress and UNESCO World Heritage Site listing.

The knights were still in charge when (Sephardic) Jews started arriving from Iberia in the 15th century, overwhelming Rhodes’ small Romaniote Jewish population such that Ladino became the lingua franca of the Jews on the Rhodes.

The Ottomans forced out the Knights Hospitaller (it was then they went to Malta, I believe). From the Ottoman period we can still see some mosques, and Ferda found this şadırvan:

And is this perhaps an Ottoman building?

As Isaac Habib explained on his Jewish tour of Rhodes, the Ottomans kicked the Christians out of the city center, but the Jews were allowed to stay, inhabiting the quarter near the port. That happened to be where we stayed.

My parents’ neighbors (and good friends, Rochelle and Bernie) are both from Rhodes so Ferda and I poked around a little looking for their old (family) homes. To help in our search they sent a photo from when they visited Rhodes many years ago.

From Isaac we learned that in 1900 the population of the city of Rhodes was about 30,000. 6000 were Jewish, but they started leaving for economic reasons to Rhodesia, Belgian Congo (Isaac and Rochelle), North America (Bernie), Argentina, Brazil.

During WW2 the Italians showed up, and I guess we can thank them (?) for rebuilding the Palace of the Grand Master (originally from the Knights Hospitaller).

The Italians took great liberties with historical accuracy during the reconstruction of the palace so if the Gothic windows and ceiling and the cloister remind you of Portuguese monasteries maybe it’s ’cause, well, that was their model. The palace is used as a museum now and houses a nice collection of Roman mosaics from Kos.

Continuing with the Iberian theme (?), this window in the museum

reminded me of the window panes made of shells in Vigan.

The Italians left the Jews alone, but then the Germans came, and Rhodes’ ~2000 remaining Jews were deported to Auschwitz. An old synagogue has been restored and turned into a museum. The only Jews now are day-trippers from the huge cruise ships, listening to Isaac for a couple hours.

If you read Spanish, it’s easy to understand this Ladino poem by J. D. Alhadeff. Alhadeff was the Jewish “Smith” of Rhodes. There’s an Alhadeff Park on Alhadeff (Αλχαδέφ) Street, and it’s Rochelle’s family name as well.

I suppose to finish the history I should say that Rhodes is part of Greece now. They’ve done a good job preserving what they have.

What a great month in Greece. Finally at our last meal I tried rabbit stifado, a not uncommon dish that had alluded me up to this point. Of course there’s much more to see and learn (and eat) in Greece. We’ll be back.