Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes: Your Complete Guide to Medieval History, Collections, Architecture, Opening Hours & Transportation Information
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The Rhodes Fortress and its heart, the Palace of the Grand Masters, is the main attraction of the city of Rhodes, located at the very end of the street of the Knights Ioannites, near the sea shore.
From here the nineteen Grand Masters of the order of the Knights Hospitallers governed the island. Being on top of the hill, this majestic building seems to still invisibly rule Rhodes and is its calling card.
In this article I will tell you more about the Rhodes Fortress, what it can please its guests, how to get to it and what you can buy here as a souvenir. And of course I won’t forget about tickets and excursions to make it easier for you to plan your visit.
Rhodes Fortress: what it is and what it looks like today
Built in the early 14th century by the Knights of the Ionite Order, Rhodes Fortress has survived many cataclysms, both political and military, but has kept its exterior and interior almost unchanged.
View of the Rhodes Fortress from the opposite shore
The Palace of the Grand Masters, which is the heart of the fortress, has 205 rooms and halls, most of which are accessible to tourists. The palace is a real fortress within a fortress. The walls are 12 meters thick in some places and the width of the defensive moat around the palace is 20 meters.
The collection of its museum includes priceless works of art, including ancient Byzantine icons, preserved interiors of rooms and halls, and the richest collections of household items from the Middle Ages.
Already at the first look at this fortress you can realize that all the nobility of Greece and not only gathered here
Rhodes Fortress opening hours and ticket price to the Palace of the Grand Masters
Working hours of the fortress: in summer (from April to October) – daily from 08:00 to 20:00; in the off-season – from 08:30 to 15:30, Tuesday – day off.
The entrance to the walls of the Rhodes Fortress is free, but the ticket to the Palace of the Grand Masters is paid. The ticket is calculated for a full day of stay on the territory and depends on the age of the visitor.
In Greece (as well as in most European countries) there is a law: up to the age of majority children have free entrance to museums. This also applies to the Palace of the Grand Masters:
- Visitors under the age of 18 are admitted free of charge.
- Adult ticket (from the age of 18) – 10 euros (in season) and 5.5 euros (out of season).
There are discounts for pensioners over 65 and students (on presentation of the relevant document). There is a 50% discount for them.
It may be useful: you can buy a ticket to the Palace of the Grand Masters at this link
How to get to the Rhodes Fortress
The Rhodes Fortress and part of it, the Palace of the Grand Masters, are located in the heart of the city of Rhodes on the Greek island of the same name, so getting there is easy.
For most buses in the city, the Palace of the Grand Masters is the final stop, as it is close to the port of Rhodes – a great reference point in finding it.
To get to the Palace of the Grand Masters, bus routes No. 012, 015, 016, 018, 062, 064, 103, 109, 113, 113, 114, 115, 118, 297, 362 and 365 are suitable. They depart from different parts of the city, which is convenient for all tourists who want to visit the palace and the fortress.
All buses go around the perimeter of the fortress, so you can get off at several stops. The northern stop is Mandraki.
There is also a stop on the south side which, in addition to the routes listed above, has several others – #029, 043, 044, 060, 065, 067, 087, 097, 099, 105, 117, 119, 120 and 255. The stop is called San Francisco Ε. From each of the stops you have to walk 5-10 minutes.
A visit to the Rhodes Fortress can be combined with a ride on the Hop-On Hop-Off double-decker tourist bus, which runs regularly throughout the day on a specific route that includes 11 stops, including the Palace of the Grand Masters.
Tickets for this Hop-On Hop-Off bus cost 15 euros for an adult and 7 euros for children from 2 to 12 years old (children from 13 years old need to buy an adult ticket).
Tickets for the Hop-On Hop-Off bus in Rhodes can be purchased at this link. I am posting the route of this bus below:
The route of this Hop-On Hop-Off City Tour bus in Rhodes city
You can get to the Palace of the Grand Masters by car: there are parking lots around the perimeter of the walls of the Rhodes Fortress, as well as parks where you can leave your car in a special parking lot at the entrance.
Or you can use cab apps: Uber or local carriers.
Location map of the Palace of the Grand Masters in Rhodes
Palace of the Grand Masters in Rhodes
The Palace is located inside the fortress walls and is accessed by 11 gates of the Rhodes Fortress. Even on the several occasions when the fortress was besieged and taken by storm, reaching the Palace, it could not be captured even once.
The entrance to the Palace is represented by two semicircular towers, the walls of which are up to 6 meters thick. Once inside, the visitor enters an open-air courtyard – a typical element of any building of that time.
Next is the entrance to the palace. From the ground floor to the first floor there is a large grand staircase made of stone.
A huge staircase paved with stone leads the way to the second floor
The ceiling vaults of the palace are huge, their height reaches 12 meters. At the top there are windows, which have onyx stone in their composition, due to which the sunlight penetrating inside is refracted and becomes yellow, illuminating dark rooms with warm colors.
This feature of the palace windows is considered unique and one of the few that have survived to this day.
Here you can see how light passes through the windows and is refracted
The interior decoration of the palace is ascetic, there is no palace luxury, rather military restraint and lack of pretentiousness. This distinguishes it from many contemporary palaces.
What to see in the Palace of the Grand Masters
More than 200 rooms and halls of the Palace of the Grand Masters house the richest collections of paintings, sculptures and military paraphernalia dating back to the Byzantine era and the Middle Ages.
The palace has two floors. The first floor houses mainly exhibits relating to Antiquity. There is a rich collection of household items, ceramics and dishes from Byzantine times.
Rhodes was a major trading port, hence the numerous samples of products. A small chapel with preserved interior and stone ceiling vaults is also open to visitors.
But the main treasure of the palace is the hall with Byzantine icons, most of which are originals dating back to antiquity. Nearby is the ancient library, where handwritten books from different countries are kept.
Also, on the first floor is the Arsenal – a hall with weapons from the Middle Ages. Here you can see cannons of various kinds, cannonballs, swords and fetters.
The most visited and significant halls of the second floor of the palace are:
- Reception Hall (where the meetings of the masters of the order and festive events were held).
- The Waiting Room (where visitors spent time before the reception of the palace masters).
- The Italian Governor’s Hall (separately arranged for the Italian government).
- Music Hall, where leisure and receptions were held.
- The hall of dancing and others.
Each hall of the palace preserves the interior of the era, down to the furniture and household items. You can see richly decorated tapestries, mirrors, paintings, statues and other works of art. Some rooms have large mosaic panels laid out on the walls and even on the floor with the famous Byzantine mosaic. All this together creates a unique atmosphere of antiquity and conveys the spirit of history, for which millions of tourists come here.
The tour of the palace begins when you enter the inner courtyard, a spacious open-air area paved with patterned stone slabs.
The courtyard is a huge large courtyard with plenty of room to spread out
The courtyard was probably used for some kind of ceremonies. The courtyard is decorated with eight statues from the Hellenic era.
The statues were brought from the island of Kos to decorate Mussolini’s future residence.
You can stand and look at the statues as I did
The first room you enter on the first floor is an old chapel in Gothic style, austere and ascetic.
The chapel looks more like a courtroom
We climb the stone staircase to the second floor, where we can see several rooms. The ceiling vaults of the palace are huge, reaching a height of 12 meters.
With ceilings like this, you could invite opera singers here
Some of the rooms on the second floor are named after the subjects of images of the magnificent floor mosaics from the Roman and early Christian eras, brought here from the island of Kos.
There are many such patterns here, this is only a small fraction of them that I captured
Each room of the palace preserves the interior of the era, down to the furniture and household items. You can see richly decorated tapestries, mirrors, paintings, statues and other works of art.
It seems as if there is no end to the art objects here, there are more and more of them
The restorers have done their best. The halls with stone walls, mosaics on the floor and high ceilings convey the real atmosphere of the Middle Ages.
And here important persons could sit on armchairs with a glass of whisky, listening to the crackling of wood in the fireplace
The acoustics, where every rustle can be heard and footsteps resound, gives this place a special mystique.
Here is another room with high ceilings and excellent acoustics
There is a large hall with a number of carved wooden benches along the walls. It was probably a meeting hall where the top brass of the order discussed the most important issues, made decisions, including those about war or peace.
Those chairs certainly don’t look comfortable
The palace also houses unique sculptures dating from the ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine periods.
One of the most impressive rooms is the one containing an antique copy of the Laocoon sculpture. Even the statue in the Vatican is an antique copy, as the original, a bronze original from 200 BC from Pergamum, was lost.
The Laocoon sculpture is one of the largest here
Each hall was heated separately by a fireplace during the cold season. One can imagine the atmosphere in such halls, which were illuminated and heated only by candlelight and the fireplace.
Fireplaces are everywhere here, in every room, they had to heat such a palace somehow
As you move towards the exit, the halls with later expositions dating back to the 18th and 19th centuries open up.
Here the rooms are smaller and the furnishings are more luxurious. One of the last halls displays items belonging to members of the Order of Malta.
And here are the more luxurious elements of the interior
What to buy in and around the Rhodes Fortress
I recommend trying the local desserts. They are a bit expensive – for a portion you have to pay 10 euros, but they are worth the money. A bottle of natural olive oil, spice packets, sweets will be a wonderful souvenir.
It is nice that the prices on the territory of the Rhodes Fortress (Old Town) are lower than in other places on Rhodes. You can buy homemade candies and honey in the fortress itself. The time to explore the citadel is unlimited. You can walk everywhere admiring the creations of local artists, whose paintings can be purchased for a reasonable price.
The shopping district has all the world’s brands in stock. Although siesta is sacred to Greeks, the local stores do not take a break.