GREECE IS | RHODES | 2017

greece is experience culture, gastronomy & more

RHO D ES

FIRST EDITION

ISSN: 2529-041X

2017-2018 ISSUE

20 - 38

39 - 84

85 - 138

W e l c o me

Discove r

EX PERIEN CE

139 - 155 Taste

Rhodes for beginners: an introduction to the island that led Greece into the Age of Tourism.

There are few places in the world where you can find the tangible traces of so many eras and cultures as you’ll see in Rhodes.

It’s not all about the Old Town and the beaches. From Italian ghost towns to mountain retreats, there’s plenty to explore.

The culinary and winemaking traditions of the island live on, ensuring that its authentic flavors are still available for all to enjoy.

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WELCOME

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At a Crowded Crossroads R H O D E S ’ A M B I V A L E N T relationshi p w ith mass to u rism

BY GIORGOS TSIROS edi t or - I N - C H I E F , G R E E C E I S

tions in Greece; it was among the first to be developed, to acquire “serious” infrastructure and – thanks to its particularly warm climate – to extend the tourism season to at least 7 months a year. However, it is also a destination that has felt the impact of having an oversupply of rooms. It has come under pressure from tour operators and has seen prices and per-capita visitor revenues squeezed. Today, it must re-examine its identity and develop a new strategic plan in order to upgrade its tourism industry and attract more high-end travelers. What is certain is that all the basic ingredients are there: natural beauty, a rich history, stunning monuments, luxury hotels and – most importantly – human resource assets well-versed in hospitality services and thoroughly accustomed to receiving people from all over the world.

That’s not all. As we discovered while putting together the magazine you are now holding in your hands, Rhodes – so developed, so widely marketed and already so well-known to potential visitors – still exhibits an uncanny ability to pleasantly surprise all those who come here.

© PERIKLES MERAKOS

It is the ninth largest island in the Mediterranean.

To get from one end to the other, one needs to cover a distance of 100 kilometers. There are 26 countries in the world that are smaller in area. Today, as you’re reading this, thousands of people will be arriving at its airport on airlines that you may not even have heard of, from cities with far fewer sunny days per year than Rhodes, places such as Leeds, Billund, Katowice, Stockholm, Gdańsk and Bratislava, as well as London, Paris, Milan, Budapest and Copenhagen. Each visitor will sleep on one of the 100,000 beds in one of the island’s licensed hotels, they will enjoy Rhodes’ beaches, admire its sights, have fun in its bars and restaurants and return to their homelands suntanned and happy.

Last year, 5 million people passed through the airport here, the country’s third busiest. (It’s also one of the 14 regional airports that have passed under the control of the consortium Fraport Greece – a comprehensive overhaul is expected soon.) In the same period, large cruise ships docked at the island’s port 400 times.

Rhodes is one of the most “mature” tourist destina-

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RODOS PALACE, QUITE SIMPLY, CONSTITUTES THE FINEST DELUXE RESORT ON THE ISLAND OF RHODES. ON A SUPERB LOCATION 3 KM FROM RHODES TOWN AND THE MEDIEVAL CITY, JUST 50 METRES FROM THE BEACH, RODOS PALACE INVITES YOU TO EXPERIENCE THE TRUE ESSENCE OF RESORT LIFE.

Iraklidon Avenue (Trianton) Ixia 85100 Rhodes, Greece T: (+30) 2241.097.222, F: (+30) 2241.025.350 info@rodos-palace.gr | www.rodos-palace.gr

© F I L I PP O S F I L I PP O U

LINDOS Below the imposing rock of the acropolis stands the picturesque town of Lindos, built οn the ruins of an ancient city. One of Rhodes’ top attractions, its traditional character is protected by conservation laws. The white-washed houses, rocky terrain and blue waters of the Aegean combine to create a setting of unparalleled charm. The crystalline sea – perfect for swimming and scuba diving – the village’s cosmopolitan summer atmosphere, wide variety of entertainment options, traditional cuisine and modern culinary creativity all come together to offer incredible moments of carefree relaxation.

KALLITHEA SPRINGS

Butterfly VALLEY One of Rhodes’ major attractions, this rare ecosystem hosts thousands of Panaxia quadripunctaria moths every summer. Park visitors can walk along the small Pelekanos River, cross wooden bridges and get lost in a fairy-tale setting of lush greenery, small rapids and stream pools, before heading to the valley’s renowned restaurant, which overlooks a waterfall.

© F I L I PP O S F I L I PP O U

© F I L I PP O S F I L I PP O U

A restored monument of exceptional architectural value, these spa facilities, built 90 years ago by the Italians, are not to be missed. Marble and pebble floors, rotundas, a seaside garden and impressive open-air spaces create a unique setting reminiscent of old Hollywood. Kallithea Beach boasts crystal-clear waters and the seabed, famed for its biodiversity, attracts groups of scuba divers.

THE OLD TOWN Europe’s largest inhabited Medieval Town, a UNESCO World Heritage City, offers visitors the one-of-a-kind experience of retracing 2,400 years of history in a single stroll.

Medieval buildings and Ottoman mosques, narrow alleys and charming squares all create a unique sense of times gone by.

There are also restaurants, bars and shops with something for everyone.

© SAV VAS ARGIROU

“The facilities of the Kallithea Springs are a fantastic tourist attraction, as well as an ideal space to host high-quality events of all kinds. We at DERMAE are open to every sort of collaboration, because we’re committed to making every effort to utilize this unique monument in the best way possible. It’s a unique space of enormous potential; it impresses all its visitors and is ideal for hosting important events that will bolster tourism on the island. To the citizens of Rhodes and all those who visit and support the monument, we thank you for appreciating our efforts.”

Giorgos Kakoulis President of DERMAE

Kallithea

© F I L I PP O S F I L I PP O U

Located on the eastern side of the island, 9k from Rhodes Town, the Kallithea Springs have long been a magnet for visitors from all over the world, particularly since a facility was created here by the island’s Italian rulers in the early 20th century. Today, the restored complex is one of the island’s most popular attractions.

In the imposing Great Rotunda, cultural and artistic events such as festivals, concerts and exhibitions are frequently held. The enchanting setting is also ideal for unforgettable events; highly experienced professionals are on hand to succesfully take on not only wedding receptions, but formal dinners, corporate meetings and conferences as well. Next to the spa complex is a popular beach with crystal waters and beautiful palm trees; its historic café, also elegantly renovated, is open throughout the day, serving refreshments right on the beach.

Kallithea Springs/ ΔΕΡΜΑΕ Α.Ε.

Tel. (+30) 2241.037.090, Fax: (+30) 2241.073.073 e-mail: info@kallitheasprings.gr http://www.kallitheasprings.gr/

A rare valley Just 10k west from Rhodes Airport, near the village of Theologos, the stunning Valley of the Butterflies is one of Rhodes’ most famous attractions. This unique ecosystem hosts the rare Panaxia quadripunctaria (actually a brightly-colored species of moth) from mid-June until late September. The moths spend most of their time resting on the shady sides of the trunks of trees or around their roots but when they take flight the orange-red of their wings becomes visible. The sight of this large colony of winged creatures is truly magical.

DO NOT DISTURB Unfortunately, the butterfly population has been declining due to the impact of tourism on the valley. Some visitors whistle or clap to make the insects take flight, without realizing that the noise they’re making resembles that made by bats. The panicked insects take flight, attempting to escape. Many die from shock, exhaustion or injury after collisions with rocks and trees. For the moths to survive, it’s crucial that they be allowed to rest during the day so they can conserve energy for their migration in September.

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WELCOME

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“Aegean Islands, unlike any other!”

This is the identity of our islands, the identity of Greece!

B Y G e org e H a t z i m a r k os R E G I O N A L G ov ernor o f t h e S o u t h A egean

T

he South Aegean Region, with 60 inhabited islands and some of the strongest brands on the world tourism map, each year receives the lion’s share of tourists to Greece.

Comprising a diverse archipelago of destinations of unparalleled beauty and character, the region has something for everyone, meeting visitors’ needs and desires with services of the highest quality.

Made up of the islands of the Cyclades and the Dodecanese, the region is one of incomparable natural beauty and diversity. Its islands, so close to one another and yet so different, offer a wealth of experiences and emotions. Islands bathed in light, surrounded by blue, where myths, history and reality co-exist in an impressive mosaic. Their contradictions are their charm. Their distinctiveness is what defines them.

It is this distinctiveness that the Southern Aegean Region is promoting worldwide via the strategic tourism development plan that it has devised and is implementing. Additionally, following our selection as a European Region of Gastronomy 2019, the unique flavors and aromas of our food will take center stage in a never-ending banquet, as we share ancient secrets with visitors and fellow diners during a thrilling culinary journey through all the senses. Our nomination is 16

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yet further proof of the region’s uniqueness, yet another invitation for visitors to get to know our islands through their cuisine. Each recipe is much more than a tasty dish; behind each one there is history, traditions, culture – an unbroken thread through time. Gastronomy on our islands is an authentic travel experience.

Aegean gastronomy, an integral part of Greek hospitality, connects the modern world with all of the preceding eras – from the Ottoman, Venetian and Frankish times to the Byzantine and Roman empires, to ancient Greece and all the way back to prehistoric times – in a fascinating journey charted by Andrew Dalby in his book Siren Feasts: A History of Food and Gastronomy in Greece. It is a link to the world of antiquity. Indeed, Aegean gastronomy is recognizable in Homeric descriptions of warriors’ banquets, Plato’s Symposium and Hippocrates’ Peri Dietis (On Diet).

Fifty different islands with as many sets of local traditions and customs make up the gastronomic culture of the Southern Aegean Region.

The Cyclades and the Dodecanese are more than sunshine and magnificent beaches. They are history. They are culture. They are the imprints each island has left on the arc of European and world history.

Comprising a diverse archipelago of destinations of unparalleled beauty and character, the region has something for everyone, meeting visitors’ needs and desires with services of the highest quality.

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CONTENTS Greece Is - Rhodes, 2017-2018 Issue, First Edition 20. The Basics. Rhodes for Beginners.

32. Insights. The ultimate repeat visitor

snapshots of the island’s historic past.

72. How it Was. One-of-a-kind

and three creative locals share their own

80. The Tourism Chronicles. How

perspectives.

Rhodes became a mega-destination.

greece is published by

E xe re vnitis - E xplore r S. A .

Ethnarchou Makariou & 2 Falireos St, Athens, 18547, Greece,

Discover 40. Milestones. A march through time

Experience 88. The Old Town. Medieval walls

on the Isle of the Sun.

encircle an enchanting microcosm.

42. "A God to Equal the God." The

106. The New Town. It may get crazy

Tel. (+30) 210.480.8000 Fax (+30) 210.480.8202 ISSN: 2529-041X editor-in-chief

mystery of the Colossus of Rhodes, one of

but that’s no reason to snub it!

the wonders of the ancient world.

114. Lindos, the Eternal Star. A

Giorgos Tsiros (editor@greece-is.com)

44. A Glorious Family. Sports legend Diagoras and his offspring.

46. Under the Eye of Helios. Rhodes’ ancient and medieval landscape.

58. The Age of the Crusaders. When Rhodes became Christianity’s most defiant outpost in the East.

64. A Terrible Beauty. The architectural legacy of the Italian Occupation.

timeless favorite of visitors.

commercial director

124. Buzzing Around. Beyond the

Natassa Bouterakou

medieval city and the beaches.

commercial inquiries

136. Baywatch. The best places to swim.

Fax (+30) 210-480.8228

Taste 142. Back to the Roots. Local products

Ε-mails: sales@greece-is.com,

and time-honored recipes.

public relations

148. Days of Wine and Rhodes. A storied past and a healthy present are good indicators for what lies ahead for the wines of this island.

ON THE C OVER Vintage postcards, News From The Past Series, Yannis Karlopoulos, 2017.

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Tel. (+30) 210- 480.8227

152. Tried and True. Want to eat out?

Look no further.

emporiko@kathimerini.gr

welcome@greece-is.com Greece is - R HODE S

is a yearly publication, distributed free of charge. It is illegal to reproduce any part of this publication without the written permission of the publisher.

TOWERING GLORY The medieval Old Town of Rhodes is no longer the target of attackers, although it may appear at times to be under siege by mass tourism.

This UNESCO-protected World Heritage Site combines vestiges from a glorious past – Byzantine temples, Crusader-era buildings and Ottoman mosques – with a lively present. On its streets, you expect armored warriors, mounted on their horses, to turn up at any moment – and the feeling intensifies once you’re in the Palace of the Grand Master (photo), which was the order’s headquarters. The fact that it was rebuilt almost from scratch by the Italians (many parts of the original building were destroyed in 1856 following a massive explosion in a gunpowder storeroom) takes nothing away from the feeling you’ll have of being transported back in time.

BY Olga Char ami

© GEORGE TSAFOS, MINISTRY OF CULTURE AND SPORTS/EPHORATE OF ANTIQUITIES OF THE DODECANESE

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THE BASICS

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SUN-KISSED

© CLAIRY MOUSTAFELLOU, MINISTRY OF CULTURE AND SPORTS/EPHORATE OF ANTIQUITIES OF THE DODECANESE

The classical city of Rhodes was founded in 408 BC on the site of present-day capital of the island by three towns – Ialyssos, Kamiros and Lindos – all acting together. All three of these ancient towns are now archeological sites which you can visit; Lindos, with its acropolis, is the most famous. Each year, countless eyes gaze in awe at its temple, erected in the 4th c. BC in honor of the goddess Athena, and the Crusader-era castle that was subsequently built. The village, with its Cycladic architecture and its beautiful kapetanospita (traditional sea captain’s houses), is equally popular. Tycoons and politicians, Hollywood artists and rock stars have all been strolling through its alleys and swimming at its three beaches. And despite it being a tourist hotspot, you can’t help falling in love with Lindos.

WATCHFUL PROTECTORS The defensive structures that knights built include more than the famous fortifications of the Old Town and of Lindos. You’ll find the fortresses of Monolithos (photo) and Kritinia on the western part of the island, and those of Feraklos, Archangelos and Asklipeio on its eastern side. Most of these spots were also fortified in antiquity or the Byzantine era as well, since they are the most strategic points of this spearhead-shaped island. It goes without saying that they all offer spectacular views. Locals suggest visiting Monolithos Castle at sunset, but you can also enjoy the exact same sight from the Castle of Kritinia, where various events, including a medieval festival, are held.

© PERIKLES MERAKOS, MINISTRY OF CULTURE AND SPORTS/EPHORATE OF ANTIQUITIES OF THE DODECANESE

THE BASICS

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What’s the best beach on the island?

Chances are that every local you ask will give you a different answer. With a 253k coastline, there’s plenty of variety. Some people prefer rocky coves where they can dive off boulders or outcroppings, while others opt for sandy beaches. A whole other group of beachgoers cares as much about the air as the sea, and seeks out places like Prasonisi, whose western winds make it ideal for kite-surfing and windsurfing. Located on the southernmost point of the island, it’s technically an island in itself, with just a strip of sand connecting it to Rhodes. The sunset is particularly scenic here.

© PERIKLES MERAKOS

SWIM skim Or FLY?

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THE BASICS

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© GETTY IMAGES/IDEAL IMAGE

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FRAGILE BEAUTIES Rhodes is an enchantingly verdant island, with many areas of rich vegetation and natural beauty. One of the most famous of these is the Valley of the Butterflies, named in honor of the Panaxia Quadripunctaria, a member of the Jersey Tiger moth family that looks very much like a butterfly. They gather in great numbers here in the canyon of the Pelekanos River, 25k from Rhodes Town. You’ll see them on rocks, tree trunks and leaves and branches rather than in the air: the moths are nocturnal and sleep during the day, conserving their energy. In previous decades, the disturbance that visitors caused significantly reduced the insect population, so now there are rules to ensure peace and quiet and venturing off the designated paths is prohibited. The lepidoptera come to this canyon in June and migrate to their nesting areas in September. Petaloudes, or the Valley of Butterflies, as it’s called, has three entrance points, each with a café, and the walking route has a total length of 1k (or 1.3k if you keep going until the uninhabited 19th-century monastery of Kalopetra). There are paved footpaths, small bridges and pools of water, as well as shops, a restaurant and a small natural history museum.

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Open daily 9:00-17:00, admission: €3-5 euro. Tel. (+30) 22410.828.22

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(Left) The insects fly and feed at night; during the day they cover tree trunks, plant leaves and rocks, creating a mesmerizing spectacle.

(Right) The Valley of the Butterflies is a park of exceptional natural beauty.

© clairy moustafellou

© MANOLIS SARRIS, ANDREA BONETTI, PERIKLES MERAKOS

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THE BASICS

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THE OTHER RHODIANS The mascot of Rhodes, the small fallow deer, whose likeness in bronze graces the columns at the entrance of the port, can be spotted here and there on the island. The deer live in the wild on Mt Profitis Ilias, in the area around Apolakkia Lake, and in the island’s forests. It remains unclear whether the deer were brought here by the Knights or not; likewise it’s not known if the Italians reintroduced the species during their occupation – some accounts suggest this happened after the native population was hunted to extinction during the Ottoman period.In any case, they have reproduced and their number is considered healthy.

A much rarer animal that lives here is a protected species of small horse that comes from an ancient breed. The horses live in a special space run by the Phaethon Club (Archangelos, Tel. +30 697.745.3207): just nine of them remain. The freshwater fish called gizani, which can be found in the Fasouli Springs in the village of Psinthos, in the reservoir of Eleousa, at the Rhodes Aquarium or (if you’re observant) in the island’s streams, is somewhat less photogenic. There’s nothing special about it, except for the fact that it doesn’t live anywhere else in the world.

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INSIGHTS

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“I’ve visited the island 150 times!”

Theresa Jette Enevoldsen

The first time I visited Rhodes was in 1967, when I started working for the Scandinavian airline SAS. I still remember the small family restaurants where we ate with coupons that the travel agency gave us – along with the advice not to sunbathe topless, because if the police arrested us, the agency couldn’t intervene! Since then, I’ve visited the island 150 times and it would be safe to say that I’m addicted to Rhodes and its people.

If I’m not staying with friends, I always book a room near Mandraki at Hermes Hotel, which is open all year round and has mainly Greek customers. As soon as I’ve checked in, I go out to meet my friends, stopping first for a sweet coffee brewed in a briki pot and for dessert at the Nea Agora. If I arrive in the evening, I go out for roast lamb at the Ipiros taverna. People who know me shout “Hello!” and “Welcome back!” and I can’t help but feel like I’m home again.

What I like to do most in town is wander the streets, pre32

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tending to be a local. Many foreigners are afraid that they’ll get lost, but that’s half the fun. Walking around the Old Town in particular feels like browsing through a beautiful history book. Every time I leave Mandraki behind and cross through the Liberty Gate, I feel the city walls encircle me in a comforting hug. The atmosphere is unique, especially at night when the lights are low. For food in the Old Town, I go to the Megiston taverna or to Pizanias Sea Star Restaurant, which I’ve been visiting since 1968. Another favorite pastime of mine is sitting beneath the century-old olive tree at Aghios Nikolaos Fountoukli Church, west of the village of Eleousa; it’s particularly peaceful there. And if I make it to the south of the island, I always visit the fish taverna in Plimmiri.

When I leave Rhodes, I always make sure to bring back oleander root. I have pots of flowering oleanders of various shades growing on my little veranda in Copenhagen. They are a beautiful reminder of my time on the island.

ILLUSTRATIONS: PHILIPPOS AVRAMIDES, EDITED BY ALEXANDRA TZAVELLA

In 2016, fifty years after she first set foot on Rhodes, Theresa, a retired airline employee from Denmark, was bestowed the title “Honorary Friend of the Island” by the Municipality of Rhodes.

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INSIGHTS

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“LIVING IN RHODES, YOU ABSORB AND RADIATE ITS BEAUTY”

Tsampikos Petras

Tsampikos is like a trademark name of Rhodes. If somebody calls out “Hey, Tsampikos,” a dozen heads will turn in response! It is an indication of the love of the locals for the protector of the island, Panaghia Tsampika (Virgin Mary Tsampika). Her icon attracts the faithful to the eastern side of the island, near the village of Archangelos, approximately 28k from the Old Town, where I grew up.

I was raised in the neighborhood of the knights, played hide-and-seek in its cobbled streets and chased my friends in the medieval moat – 2.5k long and worth the walk. I used to go running in the ancient stadium on Monte Smith, which still echoes with the footsteps of runners from the Hellenistic period. It is located on the hill of Monte Smith, the top of which is reached by hiking up its more accessible side. You can’t imagine how rough its other side is; it is revealed abruptly upon gaining the hilltop and coming face to face with the vista of steep rock and sea. You are swept by the northern wind, 34

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which has over time bent the trees so far over they look like natural sculptures. Only the athanatoi (“immortal”) stand up straight – this is what we locals call the agave that grows here because, although it dies after its fruit has ripened, it leaves behind small new shoots.

Rhodes is full of surprises. It has cultural depth, layers of history and a rich natural landscape, from waterfalls such as those at Epta Piges (“Seven Springs”) to pine forests in Aghia Eleousa. This is where one can taste the best roasted goat – a savory native to Rhodes, fed on the salty flora.

I like to frequent the 1936 Elli Building (we locals also call it La Ronda), in Mandraki: crowned by an impressive dome, it used to house the baths and today operates as a café-restaurant. It is such good fortune to live here. You absorb and radiate its beauty. I wouldn’t be the same architect if I hadn’t grown up at this cultural crossroads. The buildings I design speak an international language – and this I owe to Rhodes.

ILLUSTRATIONS: PHILIPPOS AVRAMIDES, EDITED BY ALEXANDRA TZAVELLA

A distinguished Rhodian architect, Tsampikos received an honorable mention at the International Architectural Competition for the Science City project in Cairo, in 2016.

“i only go to the old town at night, when the ghosts come out”

Vangelis Pavlidis

In the 1960s, when I moved from Rhodes to Athens to work as a graphic artist, I came to realize that I couldn’t bear to be away from the island, and so I returned. I became the first cartoonist on the island that married the light: it is not by chance that Rhodes is known as the “bride of the sun.”

I grew up and have lived for most of my life in Rhodes and so I’ve seen its touristic development firsthand. I remember Lindos when hippies lived in the caves. I frequent places still untouched by mass tourism. I go to the Old Town only late at night, when it’s quiet and, if lucky, one may see ghosts in armor come out of the medieval battlements.

Lachania, the village where I’ve lived for the last 20 years, is in the southern, less developed part of Rhodes – and a real discovery for those seeking something less tourist-oriented.

On the road leading to the village, there’s a deer crossing. The deer, the ancient symbol of Rhodes, is a protected species and a joy to behold, even though they do cause some damage to 36

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food crops. Drivers have to be constantly alert because a buck may suddenly jump out, followed by three or four does!

Lachania has about 50 residents, about 20 of whom are foreigners, mostly Germans and Brits; they discovered the hamlet in the early 1980s, when there were still dirt roads and only one public telephone, and remain commited to preserving its distinct character. Lachania has three cafés: one belongs to the priest, another doubles as a post office and the third is also a restaurant that serves home-style cuisine. The village begins at the beach and gradually becomes more verdant – most of us here are farmers and, on a visit, you’ll savor fresh vegetables, local olive oil and sweet tomatoes.

What makes Rhodes unique is that, combined with the island’s natural beauty, all these different historical periods meet here at their height. You’ll be hard-pressed to find sea, dense forests, waterfalls and gorges next to ancient Greek, medieval, Ottoman and Italian monuments anywhere else.

ILLUSTRATIONS: PHILIPPOS AVRAMIDES, EDITED BY ALEXANDRA TZAVELLA

Unable to bring himself to leave his island for the fast-paced life in Athens, Vangelis nevertheless managed to have a long, successful career as an award-winning book illustrator and a political cartoonist for some of Greece’s biggest newspapers.

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INSIGHTS

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“THE RHODIAN SUN IS A SOURCE OF LIFE”

Giorgos Chrysostomou

In the evenings, we would get together and my grandmother would cut slices of watermelon for us. As the strength of the enchanting Rhodian sun waned, the chatter began, accompanying the transition to darkness. Lying in bed, I listened to the conversations of the grownups, which filtered through the insect screen along with the scent of honeysuckle. This is my Rhodes – everyone makes their own. But unless they discover the treasures hidden in traditional villages and celebrated archaeological sites, they will never really know it.

I grew up in Rhodes Town and left at the age of 18. The sea didn’t allow me to dream; I felt trapped on the island. Nowadays, whenever my work schedule allows – certainly every Easter and possibly also August 15 (Dormition of the Virgin) – I return to Salakos, the lush green village of my childhood summers. Set in the foothills of Mt Profitis Ilias, it’s mostly made up of vineyards and olive groves and has few tourists. It is famous for the Giapraki festival, held at the end of August each year, when local housewives prepare tens of thousands of stuffed vine leaves.

In August, the island buzzes with traditional festivals – 38

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the one in honor of the Virgin Mary (Panaghia) at Kremasti is a must – and locals burn the midnight oil, participating in Rhodian dances, savoring expertly cooked meat and drinking local wine.

Climb to the top of Mt Profitis Ilias and spend the night in the historic Elafos Hotel, situated in dense woodland, where you will truly feel close to both nature and God. Sample the wine at the wineries of Embonas and delicious steaks in the village of Psinthos. Plunge into the crystalline waters of the island’s southernmost village, Kattavia. In Rhodes Town, have drinks at the Myga Coffee Bar and seafood at Pizanias Sea Star (for me, the best fish in the world). Make time to see a performance at the Melina Mercouri Medieval Moat Theater, an outstanding experience for spectators and actors alike.

I miss the various scents of Rhodes, a bouquet that complements its easygoing atmosphere. It is heavy with plant life and has a wonderful fragrance all year round. I understand those who come as students and stay, as well as the foreigners who come on vacation and remain forever. The Rhodian sun is a source of life, and you want such a blessing in your life.

ILLUSTRATIONS: PHILIPPOS AVRAMIDES, EDITED BY ALEXANDRA TZAVELLA

An award-winning theater actor, with numerous roles in film and television as well, Giorgos will be starring in “Stones in his Pockets” by Marie Jones at the Melina Mercouri Medieval Moat Theater on August 4.

discover GREECE IS

RHO D ES

THE REALM OF HELIOS The millennia-old history of this island is still very much a part of its vibrant present, with spectacular archaeological and historical sites and fascinating stories to feed your imagination.

Rhodian tetrobol coin depicting Helios, the Sun God. © GETTY IMAGES/IDEAL IMAGE

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MILESTONES

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A MARCH THROUGH TIME

491 BC The Bronze Age

The island is systematically settled at various sites.

Growing trade relations with Minoan Crete lead to cultural influences from there.

Bronze votive figurine of Cretan type (17th c. BC, Archaeological Museum of Rhodes).

11th c. BC

Dorians land on the island and establish cities at Ialysos, Kamiros and Lindos.

Wheeled animal loaded with vases (1185-1065 BC, Archaeological Museum of Rhodes).

Rhodes submits to the Persians. Later, following the Persians’ defeat, the islanders join the Athens-dominated Delian League, although during the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) they ally themselves with Sparta.

16th c. BC

The Mycenaeans arrive and come to dominate Rhodes.

Homer will later sing of the Rhodians’ participation in the Trojan War.

Crater from Rhodes (1300-1200 BC).

2200 BC 40

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The three cities of Rhodes, along with Kos and two cities on the coast of Asia Minor form the Dorian Hexapolis.

Rhodian Geometric jug (Archaeological Museum of Rhodes).

Demetrius Poliorcetes besieges Rhodes, but the island successfully resists and enters a period of economic prosperity.

Mosaic from the Hellenistic era (Archaeological Museum of Rhodes).

Elite Persian soldiers (Berlin Museum).

408 BC Ca. 700 BC

305 BC

The island’s three principle cities join together to form a new city-state where present-day Rhodes Town stands.

Silver Rhodian tetradrachm with the head of Helios (4th c. BC, Numismatic Museum, Athens).

226 BC

A powerful earthquake strikes the city, collapsing the Colossus of Rhodes – one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, erected after the lifting of the siege of the 305 BC siege.

Rhodes has long been a magnet for seaborne settlers, foreign traders and those seeking power in the Eastern Mediterranean.

During the Roman Civil War, Cassius launches a devastating raid on Rhodes, plundering the island of its precious treasures and works of art.

Persian and Arab raids take place including an invasion and short-lived occupation by the Abbasids of Baghdad, under the Caliph Harun Al-Rashid (807).

The Aphrodite of Rhodes (1st c. BC, Archaeological Museum of Rhodes).

An Arab Raid (Miniature from the Chronicle of I. Skylitzi).

1309

Early 4th c. AD

Rhodes is incorporated into the Byzantine Empire.

Ancient, Early Christian and Byzantine ruins coexist on the acropolis of Ialysos.

The conquest of Rhodes is completed by the Knights of St. John, who convert it into the powerful headquarters of a multinational Christian garrison. The city evolves into an important center of commerce, with a cosmopolitan character and many splendid buildings.

1522

The Turks besiege the city of Rhodes for months and eventually seize it.

Under Ottoman rule, Rhodes becomes the region’s administrative center, but does not return to the exalted position it previously held under the Knights Hospitaller.

1912

The Italians occupy Rhodes and other Dodecanese Islands. Although initially accepted, they come to be considered burdensome as they pursue the Italianization of the native inhabitants.

Many monuments from the Knights’ period are restored during this time.

1948

On March 7th, the official ceremony takes place for the incorporation of the Dodecanese Islands into the modern Greek State. The relevant treaty had been signed a year previously in Paris.

1988

The medieval town of Rhodes is proclaimed a World Cultural Heritage monument by UNESCO.

The Gate d’Amboise, in the castle of the Knights Hospitaller.

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THE COLOSSUS

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A God to Equal the God One of the “Seven Wonders of the World” and the ancient forerunner of the Statue of Liberty, the Colossus of Rhodes remains an inspiring mystery.

BY John Leonard

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or more than fifty years in the 3rd c. BC, visitors to Rhodes were treated to a view of one of the ancient world’s “Seven Wonders”: a gigantic bronze statue of Helios, god of the sun, hailed as the Colossus of Rhodes.

Although physical traces of this masterwork have all nearly vanished, the story of the statue lives on, intertwining historical conflict, colorful characters, artistic ingenuity and enduring controversy.

After Alexander the Great’s death in 323 BC and while his rivalrous successors struggled against one another for power and lands, Antigonus I Monophthalmus (“The One-Eyed”) sent his son, Demetrius I Poliorcetes (“The Besieger”), to attack Rhodes in 305-304 BC, hoping to force the island to break its ties with Ptolemaic Egypt. When the siege failed, due to Rhodes’ strong defenses and the Egyptians’ clandestine provisioning of the island, Ptolemy I became known as Soter (Savior), a name given to him by the Rhodians.

To defeat the Rhodians, Poliorcetes had employed a full array of weaponry and equipment, including an enormous rolling siege tower, called a Helepolis (“City Destroying”) that was 40m high and 20m wide. The sides of this multi-storied machine were iron-plated. Openings in the plating allowed the firing of catapults and dart-throw42

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ers. Nevertheless, unintimidated, the Rhodians resisted and ultimately either forced the Helepolis’ withdrawal or caused it to become bogged down in ground covertly softened.

Giving up after a year-long siege, Poliorcetes departed Rhodes, abandoning his machines and many of his weapons – which the Rhodians promptly sold to finance the construction of a giant victory monument cum offering to their primary divine patron, Helios.

Chares of Lindos, a pupil of Lysippus, created the Colossus of Rhodes, taking twelve years to complete it at a cost of 300 gold talents – equivalent today to several million dollars. Historical sources give various heights for the Colossus (60-80 cubits). The average of these sources puts it at the same height (about 34m) as New York’s Statue of Liberty (not including her upraised arm). The ancient text, “On the Seven Wonders of the World,” ostensibly provides further details concerning the Colossus, but its author (“Philo of Byzantium”) – regardless of his eloquence (Chares “…made a god to equal the god, and…by his daring…had given the world a second sun to match the first…”) – has been shown to be later in date (3rd-4th c. AD) and unreliable as a source.

How Chares crafted the Colossus, therefore, with cast or hammered sec-

tions of bronze, remains a mystery.

Iron braces were likely employed for internal reinforcement, but still the statue proved short-lived, ultimately collapsing during an earthquake in 226 BC. Noting its size, hollowness and construction, Pliny wrote: “Few men can clasp the thumb in their arms, and its fingers are larger than most statues.

Where the limbs are broken asunder, vast caverns are seen yawning in the interior. Within it, too, are to be seen large masses of rock, by the weight of which the artist steadied it…”

Where the Colossus stood also remains a question. Medieval artists depict it astride the entrance to Rhodes’ port, one foot on the terminus of each breakwater. Technical considerations would have made this location impossible, but a distinctive circle of stones and finely-carved marble blocks reused in the 15th c. St. Nicholas Tower at the mouth of Mandraki harbor may indicate the base and position of the statue there. Alternatively, the Rhodian acropolis has also been proposed as a possible location.

The actual appearance of the Colossus poses further questions. A Rhodian relief, according to Andrew Stewart, suggests a figure resembling the Getty’s bronze Victorious Youth (300-100 BC).

Furthermore, a special series of silver Rhodian didrachms depict the head of Helios with a rayed crown, which may have represented and paid homage to the newly erected Colossus.

After the Colossus collapsed, the Rhodians followed oracular advice from Delphi and chose not to rebuild their monument. The fallen remains themselves became a tourist attraction; in the 7th c. AD, they were sold by the island’s Muslim overlords to a merchant from Edessa. Today, a debate rages in debt-torn Greece whether a new Colossus of Rhodes should be erected.

A depiction of the Colossus of Rhodes, standing astride the entrance to the port, by 18th c. artist Georg Balthasar Probst.

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LEGEND

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A Glorious Family Sports hero Diagoras and his offspring represent the pinnacle of courage, virtue and honor. B Y J o h n L e o n a r d

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hodes was renowned in ancient times not only as a place of great artistic talent and philosophical intellect, but also for its highly accomplished athletes, the most famous of whom was the 5th c. BC boxer Diagoras. Like today, athletes who won their events in the Olympic Games, or the other major festivals on the ancient sports circuit, were much-admired stars, whose home communities celebrated them as local heroes. Diagoras’ fame as a “periodonikes” (winner of 44

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all four major games) was particularly far-reaching: he had triumphed twice at Olympia, four times at Isthmia and had also “taken home the gold” at Delphi and Nemea. He was victorious numerous times at lesser athletic contests throughout ancient Greece, including those in his native Rhodes, Athens, Argos, Thebes and at Aegina, too, where he was a six-time champion! A statue of Diagoras was erected at Olympia, an honor much like the present-day induction of a great athlete into his/

her respective sport’s Hall of Fame. As the public’s esteem for Diagoras grew, it was claimed that, as a descendant of the god Hermes, he possessed divine power.

The Classical poet Pindar, writing after Diagoras’ victory in the 79th Olympiad (464 BC), pays homage to the boxer (Olympian Ode 7), whom he describes as a burly, principled athlete who doesn’t cheat and “walks a straight course on a road that hates arrogance, knowing clearly the sound prophetic

© VISUALHELLAS.GR

wisdom of his good ancestors.” Diagoras’ virtuous character appears to have been as important a part of his fame as his athletic prowess. He hailed from a well-to-do Ialysos family and was the progenitor of a line of victorious athletes. Two of his sons, Damagetos (452, 448 BC) and Akousilaos (448 BC), were Olympic pankration and/or boxing champions, while a third, Dorieus, earned three consecutive Olympic victories in the pankration (between 432424 BC), as well as eight at Isthmia and seven at Nemea. In addition, two of his grandsons were Olympic champions.

Diagoras’ sons and grandsons were also commemorated with statues at Olympia, according to the eyewitness account of the Greek traveler Pausanias (2nd c. AD).

After their victories in 448 BC, Damagetos and Akousilaos reportedly ran to the grandstands, plucked their father out of the audience, hoisted him onto their shoulders and paraded him before a cheering crowd. One spectator – implying that Diagoras had reached the pinnacle of happiness, success and honor that one could hope to experience in life – shouted out, “Die, Diagoras; you will not ascend to Olympus besides.”

Diagoras’ daughter, Callipateira, also became famous, as the only woman who managed to enter and observe the actual Olympic games – from which women were banned due to the male athletes’ nudity. Pausanias records: “She, being a widow, disguised herself exactly like a gymnastic trainer, and brought her son to compete at Olympia. Peisirodus, for so her son was called, was victorious, and Callipateira, as she was jumping over the enclosure in which they kept the trainers shut up, bared her person. So her sex was discovered, but they let her go unpunished out of respect for her father, her brothers and her son, all of whom had been victorious at Olympia. Nevertheless, a law was passed that in the future trainers should strip before entering the arena.”

Diagoras’ legend lives on today in Rhodes. In Pindar’s timeless words, “That man is prosperous, who is encompassed by good reports.” A local football club and the Rhodian airport have both been given his name, while on the western seafront of Rhodes Town, at Archimandriti Chrisanthou Square, stands a bronze statue group of the proud parent Diagoras, carried aloft by his equally proud sons.

One spectator – implying that Diagoras had reached the pinnacle of happiness, success and honor that one could hope to experience in life – shouted out, “Die, Diagoras; you will not ascend to Olympus besides.”

Crowning the Victors at Olympia, oil on canvas, c.

1777-84, by James Barry.

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HISTORY

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Under the Watchful Eye of Helios Rhodes’ ancient and medieval monuments tell the story of an island prized by all.

BY John Leonard

© PERIKLES MERAKOS, MINISTRY OF CULTURE AND SPORTS/EPHORATE OF ANTIQUITIES OF THE DODECANESE

The partially reconstructed Temple of Pythian Apollo (3rd-2nd c. BC), on the hill of Monte Smith. This was the area of the city’s ancient acropolis, adorned with shrines, large temples, public buildings and underground places of worship.

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Early Seafaring Everywhere one looks, whether at the fortified port of Rhodes Town or among the age-old settlements, castles and watchtowers that ring the coasts, Rhodes’ timeless relationship with the sea is clear. Naturally, as an island, Rhodes was first occupied by seafarers: Neolithic travelers of the 6th millennium BC, who brought with them, or acquired locally through seaborne 48

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© CLAIRY MOUSTAFELLOU

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hodes is one of the most enchanting Greek destinations that visitors today can select.

On this singular island, one comes face to face with Greece’s more recent past, where the most appropriate start to every “story” told by a medieval tower, a soaring minaret, a crenellated wall or an arched gateway marked with a heraldic emblem seems to be “Once upon a time in Rhodes…” Not every architectural or archaeological trace reveals a perfect, fairytale existence, but these contrasts make our understanding even more realistic. All around are signs of the Rhodians’ struggles with war, their need for constant vigilance and the relentless passage of time. Simultaneously, strength, prosperity, elegant foreign influence and far-reaching Rhodian authority are also evident. This is a strategically located, resource-rich island whose landscape and urban architecture remain criss-crossed with the vestiges of multiple cultures – from trade-bent Minoans and Mycenaeans in the Bronze Age, through despotic Persians in the Classical era, to the covetous empires of the Romans, Byzantines, Crusaders, Ottomans and even modern-day, preWWII Italians. Rhodes was not always subject to outside powers, however: after freeing itself from the grip of Athens, which had dominated the Aegean in the 5th c. BC, and prior to the encroachment of the Romans, Rhodes reached an extraordinary zenith during Hellenistic times (4th-2nd c. BC). It became an autonomous maritime giant that essentially ruled the seas in the Eastern Mediterranean through its enormous fleet of merchant ships and widely respected code of maritime laws.

Relief of a “triimiolia,” a symbol of Rhodian naval power, carved in180 BC by the famous sculptor Pythokritos into a rock face at the base of the acropolis of Lindos. The triimiolia was a typical type of Rhodian warship of the era, which combined the qualities of a trireme with a schooner (hemiolia).

trade, volcanic obsidian and other foreign goods from neighboring islands or mainland areas both near and far.

Typical of Rhodes’ Stone-Age sites are the rock shelters of the northeastern Kalythies region, including Erimokastro Cave, where archaeologists uncovered the fossilized bones of dwarf elephants. Aghios Georgios Cave (5300 BC-4000/3700 BC) contained bone or chipped-stone tools and stone grinders used for harvesting and processing cereals, meat and other foodstuffs. Also found were mollusc shells; the bones of fish, wild fauna (deer, hares, foxes, birds) and domesticated animals (sheep, goats, cattle, pigs); ceramic bowls; and spindle whorls for weaving.

Altogether, it seems the earliest Rhodians were farmers, fishermen, hunters and craftsmen who migrated around the island depending on the season and availability of food resources.

The Rise of Cities From earliest times, people settled mostly in northern Rhodes and along its eastern shores – a general pattern that continued throughout the island’s histo-

ry. The first proto-urban settlement was Asomatos (2400/2300 BC-2050/1950 BC), a northwestern, Early Bronze Age coastal site, where small and large buildings, some with hearths and storage rooms, covered an area of only about 100 square meters. During the Late Bronze Age, as Minoan and Mycenaean immigrants arrived, larger towns, referenced in Homer’s Iliad, arose at Ialysos (modern Trianda), Kamiros and Lindos, which went on to become the settings for the great Dorian-founded cities of Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic Rhodes. In 408 BC, the three principal communities joined forces to create a new city-state at Rhodes Town, which, some 2,500 years later, still remains the capital and nerve center of the island.

The Laocoön Group, a marvelous work of Rhodian sculpture (1st c. BC-1st c. AD), which greatly influenced Michelangelo and other Renaissance sculptors. Created by three Rhodian artists, Agesander, Polydorus, and Athenodorus.

The original stands in the Vatican (Pio Clementino Museum); a plaster cast is displayed in the Palace of the Grand Master in Rhodes.

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Rhodes reached an extraordinary zenith during Hellenistic times (4th-2nd c.

BC) – becoming an autonomous maritime giant that essentially ruled the seas in the Eastern Mediterranean.

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Far-Reaching Fame Mythologically, Rhodes was said to have emerged from the sea as a gift from Zeus to Helios, god of the sun, whose wife, Rhodos, daughter of Poseidon, bore him seven sons. Three of Helios’ grandsons, Ialysos, Kamiros and Lindos, were the eponymous heroes of the island’s main cities. Moreover, the Telchines, semi-divine inventors of smithing, kept a workshop on Rhodes, a place praised by Pindar and widely known for its supreme artistry, especially in the sculpting of bronzes – epitomized by the legendary Colossus of Rhodes. Pliny attributed the famous marble statue “Laocoön and His Sons” to the Rhodian artists Agesander, Polydorus, and Athenodorus. The Winged Victory (Nike) of Samothrace may also have been produced by this trio, or by Pythokritos of Lindos.

Rhodes was equally famed as a center of philosophy, rhetoric and literature. Prominent philosophers and rhetors who either originated from or frequented the island included Eudemos (Rhodes); Aeschines (Athens); Panaitos (Lindos); Posidonius, Apollonius Malakos and Molon (Asia Minor). Among the well-known students attending here were Julius Caesar and Cicero. Today, the survival and usual arrangement of Aristotle’s works are largely credited to Andronicus of Rhodes (1st c. BC).

Cleobuline of Lindos (ca. 550 BC) is remembered as a philosopher, poetess and writer of riddles; Apollonius Rhodius penned the epic poem Argonautica; and Posidonius, the Stoic-turned-Peripatetic philosopher and one of antiquity’s greatest thinkers, also researched, taught and wrote about physics, geography, history and many other subjects.

Ruins at the archaeological site of Kamiros, one of the three city-states founded by the Dorian settlers of Rhodes. The people of Kamiros lived and prospered through agricultural production.

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Three of Helios’ grandsons, Ialysos, Kamiros and Lindos, were the eponymous heroes of the island’s main cities.

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The ancient odeon on the hill of Monte Smith (2nd c. BC). It held about 800 people and is believed to have served as both a venue for musical events and as a place of exposition and teaching for the famous orators of Rhodes.

Rhodes Town The walled medieval Old Town is truly an impressive sight. Visitors should allow plenty of time to explore its broad avenues and narrow, labyrinthine alleys. From an ancient archaeological perspective, there are few visible in-situ remains to take in, apart from the foundations of a temple of Aphrodite (3rd c. BC), just inside the Liberty Gate, and occasional remnants of the city’s Byzantine fortifications.

In its heyday, Rhodes also possessed sanctuaries of Demeter, Artemis, Asclepius, Dionysus and other deities.

A star attraction is the Archaeological Museum. From the moment you enter the courtyard of this 15th c. building – constructed by the Knights of St. John as their Hospital – you’re in another world, passing beneath vaulted ceilings, climbing stone staircases and perusing a vast arrangement of artifacts presented in numerous chambers.

Here one can see the discoveries of Italian and Greek excavations at Ialysos, 52

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Kamiros, Lindos, Rhodes Town and smaller sites: pottery, jewelry, sculpture and figurines compete for your attention with grave steles and floor mosaics depicting lively mythological figures, such as Eros on a dolphin or Bellerophon riding Pegasus about to strike Chimera. These latter exhibits are found in a cool, shady courtyard adorned with sculptural and architectural fragments, a tranquil fishpond and two gurgling water fountains. Adjoining this pleasant refuge are the excellent new Prehistoric Gallery, the informative Epigraphical Collection and a reconstructed 18th/19th c. Ottoman residence – all located within the former 15th c. Villaragut Mansion (now part of the museum).

Small displays of ancient artifacts and a superb series of colorful Roman mosaics – brought to Rhodes from Kos by the Italians – can also be seen in the restored Palace of the Grand Master.

West of the walled city, the ancient acropolis on Monte Smith – an enor-

mous, mostly unexcavated archaeological preserve of some 12,000 sq.m. – is well worth a visit. There, in addition to panoramic views, one finds monuments of the 3rd and 2nd c. BC, including a restored stadium, formerly flanked by a gymnasium and library; a reconstructed odeon; and the Doric Temple of Apollo Pythios, partly re-erected by the Italians prior to 1943, but now encased in decaying scaffolding. In two spots to the north are large column drums and entablature blocks marking the site of the Doric Temple of Athena Polias and Zeus Polieus, protectors of the city, and an intriguing subterranean complex of interconnecting rooms carved in the bedrock (the “Nymphaia”), where ancient Rhodians worshiped. In honor of Helios, after 408 BC their principle deity, the people of Rhodes also staged a festival every four years, the Halieia, which included athletic contests in the stadium. Excavations have revealed that the Hellenistic city developed on a gridded Hippodamean plan.

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Marble head of Helios, the Sun God, the Rhodians’ main deity.

A representative work Visitors to the Museum of of the Rhodian Baroque Prehistoric never style, Thera it is particularly cease to be amazed by the noteworthy for its masterpieces of prehistoric(2nd expressiveness ceramic work. c. BC, Archaeological Museum of Rhodes).

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Ialysos The complex of sites that composes ancient Ialysos, whose Late Bronze Age settlement was one of the most important centers in the Dodecanese, now lies largely obscured amid modern development. Rising above the coastal plain, however, stands Ialysos’ ancient acropolis on Mt Filerimos, the view from which is unsurpassed. A winding road ascends to its summit, occupied by a Doric-facaded fountain-house (4th c. BC); an amphiprostyle Doric Temple of Athena (3rd/2nd c. BC); the ruins of an Early Christian church (5th/6th c.

AD) and a Byzantine monastery chapel (10th/11th c.); a Byzantine fortress (11th c.); the small medieval Chapel of Aghios Georgios Chostos; and a reconstructed monastery of the Knights Hospitaller (14th c.), whose Gothic church has a distinctive bell tower.

Long a target of archaeological interest, Ialysos was first explored in

HISTORY

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1868-1871 by Sir Alfred Biliotti, Britain’s vice-consul, who unearthed tombs on the hill of Moschou Vounara containing pottery and jewelry – the firstknown Mycenaean collection in the world, preceding even Heinrich Schliemann’s discoveries at Mycenae (1876).

Subsequent early 20th-century investigations by Italian and, more recently, by Greek scholars (since 1978) have shown the Ialysos area was occupied from the Middle Bronze Age through at least Classical times. Mt Filerimos served as a peak sanctuary, before its reoccupation in the Proto-Geometric era (from ca. 1050 BC), while settlements and cemeteries were established in its shadow. The large Late Bronze Age town, comparable to Akrotiri on Santorini, flourished ca. 1600 BC-ca. 1300 BC, serving first the Minoans, then the Mycenaeans as a major trade station and maritime gateway between the Aegean and the East. Adjacent Archaic-Clas-

sical Ialysos was home to the famous Olympic boxer Diagoras of Rhodes.

Kamiros The extensive ruins of Kamiros, southwest of Ialysos, occupy a hillside overlooking the sea and the mountains of nearby Asia Minor. Although most of the remains in this grid-planned city date from Hellenistic-Roman times, with some Early Christian presence, finds of Late Bronze Age and Geometric date reveal the site was first occupied in the 14th c. BC, then resettled in the 9th c. BC, as a hilltop shrine to Athena Kameiras. The town thrived in the 7th-6th c. BC, experienced a period of rebuilding after an earthquake in 226 BC, then gradually declined, abetted by another quake in 142 BC. Kamiros was known for its epic poet Peisander (ca. 648 BC), who first described Heracles wearing a lion’s skin, and as the first Rhodian city to mint its own coins (6th c. BC).

© PERIKLES MERAKOS, MINISTRY OF CULTURE AND SPORTS/EPHORATE OF ANTIQUITIES OF THE DODECANESE

The Doric Temple of Athena, constructed ca.

300 BC on the highest point of the acropolis of Lindos, in place of an earlier temple.

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Plate found at Kamiros. Inside is depicted the duel between Menelaus and Hector during the Trojan war (610-600 BC, British Museum, London).

Fragment of a wall painting from Ialysos with red lilies on a white ground (17th c. BC, Archaeological Museum of Rhodes).

Clay female portrait from Kamiros, with traces of paint (1st half of 5th c. BC, Archaeological Museum of Rhodes).

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Excavations by Biliotti (1852-1864) and the Italians (from 1928) exposed three main districts: the agora, with a temple of Pythian Apollo (3rd c. BC), two sanctuaries and two public baths; a rising residential zone of densely packed courtyard houses reminiscent of those in Delos, separated by narrow side streets and a broad central avenue; and the triple-terraced acropolis, adorned with an unusually long (204m) Doric stoa (colonnaded, covered walkway or visitors’ hostel; 3rd c. BC) and a Doric temple of Athena (3rd c. BC) installed on top of a previous Classical one. Beneath the stoa, an enormous Archaic-era reservoir was discovered that originally held 600 cubic meters of water, enough for several hundred households.

c. AD) and a Diocletian-era temple (late 3rd c. AD). Lindos’ military defenses date from at least the Hellenistic era, but were augmented first by the Byzantines and then by the Knights Hospitaller, who strengthened the castle on the rock with crenellated walls and four large towers (14th c.). Caves, elaborate family tombs and other sites around the acropolis were reused for numerous Early Christian and Byzantine churches.

Excavations at Lindos were initially conducted by Danish archaeologists (1902-1905), which the Italians continued prior to WWII, along with extensive restorations. Less ambitious but more accurate restorations have more recently been carried out by Greek cultural authorities (1985-2008).

Lindos The acropolis of Lindos, perhaps the most picturesque place in Rhodes, juts up from the sea, flanked by two natural harbors. The surrounding region was inhabited from earliest times, although archaeological evidence on the acropolis itself has so far only attested to use beginning in the 9th c. BC. Local worship of Athena Lindia led to the promontory’s development into a formal sanctuary, with a 6th c. BC amphiprostyle Doric temple, later rebuilt ca. 300 BC. A monumental entranceway (propylon), installed around the same time, followed by an elegant Doric stoa, also adorned the site, while a theater with twenty-six tiers of seats can be seen carved into the hill’s western slope. At the foot of the steep Hellenistic staircase accessing the citadel gate, a relief sculpted on the face of the vertical rock by the renowned Pythokritos (early 2nd c. BC) depicts an ancient triimiolia and recalls the Lindians’ former maritime might.

Roman remains on the acropolis include the Ionic Stoa of Psythiros (2nd

Around the Coasts Although many visitors choose to concentrate on Rhodes’ main historical sites, a tour around the island’s coast, taking in the enormous array of other significant scenic remains, is well worth consideration. Most evocative are the ruined castles, usually perched on precipitous crags, including those of Kritinia, Monolithos, Asklipio and Farakleos.

The Rhodian countryside is diverse and impressive, with historic spots lying around every bend, often signposted with intriguing labels such as the “Old Silk Factory” east of Kattavia. The southern end of the island is another world: open, relatively quiet and featuring one of the largest sand beaches imaginable, connecting Prasonisi Islet to the Rhodian mainland. Just beside it, the fortified settlement of Vroulia (7th-6th c. BC), made visitor-friendly with EU funding, lies near-forgotten, awaiting further governmental support before opening to the public. On the east coast, the mountaintop 16th c. monastery of Tsampika, with its panoramic view of the Rhodian sea, is also well worth the trip.

Info •

R h o d e s A r c h a e o l o g i c a l M u s e u m : Megalou Alexandrou Square • Αdmission €8 Tel. (+30) 2241.365.257 • Οpen daily 8:00-20:00. Ia ly s o s : Tel. (+30) 2241.092.202 • Αdmission €6.

Open 08.00-20.00. K am i r o s : Tel. (+30) 2241.040.037 • Αdmission €6. Οpen 08.00-20.00 L i n d o s : Tel. (+30) 2244.031.258 • Αdmission €12, open 08.00-20.00.

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The Age of the Crusaders Under the rule of the Knights of the Order of St John, Rhodes became Christianity’s most defiant outpost in the East.

BY GEORGIA NAKOU

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or over two centuries, between 1309 and 1522, the island of Rhodes was a sovereign state under the rule of the Knights of the Order of St John. It minted its own currency and boasted a commercial port to rival Venice, acting as a gateway between Europe and the Holy Land.

The medieval city of Rhodes, contained within the fortifications built during the Crusaders’ rule, is today the largest active medieval town in Europe and is protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Order of St John (or, the Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, to give its full name) was founded during the First Crusade as a monastic order with a medical mission. Its monks ran a hospital for Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem, and were hence known as the Hospitallers. Under the threat of Muslim invasion, the brotherhood became increasingly militarised and began to provide armed escorts for pilgrimages. Its members swapped their monks’ habits for armor and eventually became a multinational elite fighting force answering only to the Pope. When Jerusalem fell to the Arabs in 1291, the Hospitallers moved first to Cyprus and then found a new base on Rhodes. According to one account, they besieged the island for three years before it surrendered; in another version of events, they purchased it (along with neighbouring Kos and Leros) from the Genoese, who had tired of defending the islands from pirate raids. The

The Siege of Rhodes by the Ottomans, 1480.

Oil on wood, from the Municipal Museum of Épernay, France.

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© sOURCE: N. Kasseris, Rhodes, Nymph of Helios, Rhodes1997 – FROM: E. Flantin, L’ Orient, 1853)

The fortifications of the harbor of Rhodes as seen in a 1862 engraving. In the foreground stands the imposing Naillac Tower, built during the rule of Grand Master Philibert de Naillac (1396-1421).

Knights of St John established their new headquarters on Rhodes in 1309.

Under the Knights of St John, Rhodes became a bastion of the Christian West right on the border with the Muslim world, and a defensive outpost against the raids of the Barbary pirates. During the Crusades, the Knights prospered and invested their wealth in fortifying Rhodes. They brought the most skilled craftsmen and master builders to transform the existing Byzantine citadel into what is today one of the finest surviving examples of Gothic defensive architecture. The surviving walls run almost 4k in encircling the Old Town. They are 12m thick each and sometimes they are either doubled or tripled.

What’s more they are all surrounded by a moat.

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non in the mid-15th century. A network of secret tunnels linked the city to the surrounding countryside, allowing supplies to be brought in during a siege.

Outside the citadel of Rhodes Town, the island’s 50 villages were guarded by 11 castles, making up a formidable defensive network. The mouth of the harbor, which became one of the busiest in the Mediterranean, was protected by a submerged chain, which could render it impassable to enemy ships. Arriving by ferry today, you get an idea of the sense of awe that the fortified city would have inspired in its would-be attackers.

City quarters The Knights were organized into eight “Langues” (tongues), each named after the part of Europe where its members hailed from, including France, Germany, England, Spain and Italy. Their commander was known as the Grand Master. Each Langue was responsible for guarding a section of the defensive walls. The Knights attracted to Rhodes not only their own extensive retinue, but also many wealthy merchants who were able to use the safe port to trade across the Mediterranean. The official written languages of Rhodes un-

When the legendary conqueror Suleiman the Magnificent rode into town after days of sacking, it is said that his horse waded ankle-deep in the blood running down the cobbled streets.

The Grand Master Pierre d ‘Aubusson inspects the repairs of the fortifications.

(Taken from the book The Knights of Rhodes by Elias Kolias, Ekdotike Athenon, 2007)

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THE KNIGHTS

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Grand Master Pierre d’Aubusson welcoming Prince Djem in Rhodes. Miniature from a 15th century French manuscript. (Paris, Bibliothèque Des Arts Decoratifs)

forced to surrender and leave the island for good, along with a large part of the Greek population.

When the legendary conqueror Suleiman the Magnificent rode into town after days of sacking, it is said that his horse waded ankle-deep in the blood running down the cobbled streets. The violence was such that the Sultan ordered his army to stand down at once.

This marked the end of an era. Several notable monuments were added during the subsequent Ottoman occupation, and large parts of the medieval city were destroyed in an explosion in 1856. However, the buildings erected by the Knights still dominate the city, either in their original form or as lovingly restored by the Italian administration of the early 20th century, which stripped them of all anachronistic additions.

The Old Town preserves the medieval street layout and is mostly pedestrianized, allowing visitors to explore at their leisure a living monument.

der the Crusaders were French, Latin and Italian, but the language spoken by the new inhabitants on the narrow cobbled streets was probably a kind of “Esperanto” of the time, mixing Italian, Spanish and French.

The walled town was divided into three sectors: the administrative quarter, which was centered around the Palace of the Grand Master, at the highest point of the city; the Kollakio, which was inhabited by the Knights; and the Bourgo (lower town, or Chora in Greek), where the rest of the population 62

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lived, including the Greek and Jewish communities and the secular Franks.

The protection offered by the walled city was formidable. In 1480, the citadel of Rhodes was able to withstand a two-month siege by a Turkish army of 70,000, despite being defended by a much smaller force of 600 knights and 2,000 soldiers. The Turks returned with a much larger force in the summer of 1522. Over a grueling six months, the knights inflicted on their besiegers an astounding 73 deaths for every one that they suffered, but eventually they were

Silver gigliato of the Knights of Rhodes, 13191346, obverse depicting the Grand Master in adoration of the cross. Rhodes, 14th century.

c r e at i n g m em o r i e s f o r a l i f e t i m e !

Lindos, 851 07 – Rhodes, Greece | www.lindosblu.gr | info@lindosblu.gr | Tel.: (+30) 2244.032.110

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A Terrible Beauty

The architectural legacy of the Italian οccupation of Rhodes.

Detail of the Governor’s Palace (Palazzo del Governatore) which today houses the offices of the Prefecture of the South Aegean.

© CLAIRY MOUSTAFELLOU, MINISTRY OF CULTURE AND SPORTS/EPHORATE OF ANTIQUITIES OF THE DODECANESE

BY Yiannis Chrysafis

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hat would Rhodes be like today without those architectural works from the era of the Italian occupation (1912-1943)? In all likelihood, it would be less striking and less picturesque. The town’s noted buildings, so important today, might not have been preserved or renovated, instead perhaps succumbing years ago to the deterioration of time. Visitors would not gather, as they do today, to take in the impressive seafront spectacle of the Foro Italico at the port of Mandraki, with all the imposing administrative buildings that combine Byzantine, Venetian, Renaissance, Ottoman and local architectural elements in a distinctively eclectic style. And the Old Town – already having undergone Ottoman interventions, including the installation of cemeteries around its walls – might simply have been allowed to collapse, palace and all; or it might have suffered that common Greek fate of being abandoned to unfettered and unregulated redevelopment, like so many other once beautiful places.

Such contemplation, of course, does not absolve the Italian conquerors of Rhodes, nor does it negate the hard, authoritarian methods of “Italianization” they applied in the Dodecanese, especially after the rise of fascism. It simply recognizes the immense importance of the architectural character and sense of spatial order they left stamped on the contemporary face of Rhodes.

Although the Italians landed on

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1. The Grand Hotel of Roses (Grande Albergo delle Rose) opened its gates in 1927. Fully renovated, it still operates as an hotel and houses Casino Rodos.

2. Foro Italico in the time of Mario Lago. Visible on the left are the New Market (Nea Agora), the Bank of Italy (Banca d’ Italia di Rodi), the House of Fascism (Casa del Fascio) and the Courthouse.

3. The large fountain at the entrance to the Kallithea Thermal Springs (Terme Calitea).

4. The western side of the Governor’s Palace (Palazzo del Governatore).

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5. The New Market, with its Eastern architectural influences, is home today to shops and small eateries that serve ouzo and meze.

6. The distinctive Art Deco architecture of the Rhodes Aquarium, designed by Αrmando Bernabiti and built in 1934-35.

7. Mario Lago, governor of the Dodecanese from 1922 to 1936, whose goal was the Italianization of the locals.

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the island in 1912 during their conflict with the Ottoman Empire, most of their architectural works on Rhodes were carried out during the era of Mussolini (who took power a decade later) and reflect the attitude of his fascist regime toward urban space. The past – the ancient past as much as the Middle Ages and the Renaissance – became raw material for fascist rhetoric, as Dr. Medina Lasansky points out in her book “The Renaissance Perfected: Architecture, Spectacle & Tourism in Fascist Italy.”

In the 1920s and 30s many leading architects, archaeologists, historians and city planners of Rome collaborated to showcase ancient monuments and historic sites of the former Roman Empire in the light of the Duce’s vision of modern Italy as a metropolitan power center. Public spaces, commercial facilities, churches, theaters, bridges, schools, sports facilities, villages and entire cities were either built or restored in Italy, as well as in the Italian territories in the Aegean and northern and eastern Africa. The central motif for this extensive building program was antiquity, both on a theoretical and practical level, and its apparent aim was the promotion of fascism. The esthetics of this movement were not uniform, as the ruling Italians appointed to their ranks and glorified, on a case by case basis, ultra-modernists, rationalists, neo-historians and representaG R E E C E IS

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© CLAIRY MOUSTAFELLOU, PERIKLES MERAKOS, ALEKOS MARKOGLOU ARCHIVE

8. Cesare Maria de Vecchi, governor of the Dodecanese from 1936 to 1940

© NIKOLAOS STOURNARAS/SIMEON DONTAS ARCHIVE

The Governor’s Palace, the Elli Building and a statue depicting a deer, the emblem of Rhodes, in the late 40’s.

tives of the Novecento.

However, the main thrust of everyone involved was the “cleansing” (or “liberation,” as they called it) of the past. Thus, the restoration and/ or reconstruction of the traces of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance included their redesign – their selective representation carried out according to a specific viewpoint, one that fit the regime and its values. Whether in Rome, Tuscany, Rhodes or Libya, the regime’s architects were summoned to create a “purified” version of the past that would extol the present.

In the beginning, the Rhodians regarded the Italians as liberators from the Ottoman yoke and saw their arrival as a harbinger of the island’s desired union with Greece. These hopes were quickly dashed. Rhodes’ new overlords put the Dodecanese Islands under the authority of Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, calling themselves the “Governo dele Isole Italiane Dell Egeo,” or the 68

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Government of the Italian Islands of the Aegean. In aspiring to gain control over the Eastern Mediterranean, they began a broad program of Italianization of the region and its inhabitants.

These aims were served by a series of appointed governors, who applied either a “carrot” or a “stick” policy.

The first civilian governor of the Italian Islands of the Aegean, and the one who left the most lasting impression on Rhodes, was the diplomat Mario Lago (1924-1936), who led his country’s efforts to impose Italian culture and to alter the ethnic make-up of the

local population, while simultaneously attempting to banish the Greek language, culture and Orthodox religion.

Lago erected many public buildings; undertook numerous beautification projects in Rhodes’ historical center; restored medieval monuments; founded rural settlements; and adopted economic reforms – including measures to promote tourism. He was a pioneer in his time. Perhaps his most important legacy is the master plan he instituted for the city of Rhodes, which was comparable to those adopted in all the major cities of the West. During Lago’s

Whether in Rome, Tuscany, Rhodes or Libya, the Italian fascist regime’s architects were summoned to create a “purified” version of the past that would extol the present.

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Today, the refurbished Kallithea Springs (Terme Calitea) are a protected historical monument.

tenure, the monuments of the Old Town were identified and protected; all the land in the immediate area around the city walls was declared a “zona monumentale” (monument zone) and construction came under tight controls.

Large areas (e.g., the Ottoman cemeteries) were forcibly seized for reasons of public interest, while the new town established outside the walls followed the popular Italian model of the garden city, endowed with a modern infrastructure, including roads, water and sewer systems, street lighting and administrative and military buildings.

Most of the projects completed during this period bear the stamp of Florestano di Fausto (1890-1965), the most important architect of fascist Italy. In the space of three years (19231926), and before he suffered a rift 70

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with Governor Lago, Di Fausto had designed or redesigned an astonishing fifty buildings in the Dodecanese – houses, public buildings, churches, markets, schools, barracks – of which thirty-two had been completed or were under construction in 1927. Among the achievements that can still be admired today are the Foro Italico, the city’s new administrative center at Mandraki and the Italian (formerly Ottoman) Club, a lounge for Italian officers and senior civil servants. The Courthouse was restored in a style clearly influenced by Renaissance architecture.

The Roman Catholic Cathedral of Saint John (known today as the Metropolitan Church of the Annunciation), with its characteristic bell tower and its famed sarcophagi of the Great Magistrates, was built in the New Town as a repli-

ca of an older, Hospitallers-era church destroyed in 1856. Other buildings include the Maritime Administration and the Grand Hotel of the Roses, with its distinctive dome, which continues to operate as a hotel and which constitutes one of the major landmarks of touristic Rhodes.

Equally important was the Italians’ conservation work in the Old Town, especially their intervention at the Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes, which they restored and turned into a museum (it remains one today). Notable, too, are the archaeological surveys, excavations and restoration works carried out by the Italians at several sites in Rhodes, mainly at Ialysos and Lindos, and elsewhere in the Dodecanese Islands.

Lago was succeeded by Cesare Maria De Vecchi (1936-1940), one of the Quadrumvirs in Mussolini’s central ruling tetrarchy. He imposed unequivocally brutal political oppression, particularly as the Second World War and the Greco-Italian War approached.

Wanting to further emphasize the “glory” of the Knights and their presence in Rhodes, and by association to extend that glory to the regime of which he was a founding member, De Vecchi had public buildings and new constructions cladded with “pietra finta” (faux stone), as a visual reference to the period of the Knights. Characteristic examples of this treatment include the Hotel Thermae and the Palazzo Littorio, which later became the City Hall.

On March 7, 1948, the inhabitants of Rhodes celebrated the incorporation of the Dodecanese Islands into the Greek State – in front of public buildings that were founded during the period of Italian occupation. Freedom replaced fascist oppression. Seven decades later, there are few residents remaining on the island who experienced the Italian occupation, but the younger generations – without forgetting the past – live with, and take full advantage of, the legacy of architecture and urban planning from those years. It is a heritage that enriches their daily lives.

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MEMENTOS

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THE WAY IT WAS Τhe author of the book “Rhodes - One Hundred Years Of Photography 1850-1950” has dug through archives and private collections to bring us one-of-a-kind snapshots of the island’s storied past.

BY S i m e o n D o n ta s

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he island of Rhodes is fortunate to have been photographed like almost no other. In the mid-19th century, Rhodes was subject to foreign rule – a mere province of the Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless, the island’s reputation for ancient and knightly glory had captured the imagination of both Greek and foreign travelers, with Rhodes becoming a regular stop on the Grand Tour. A few of those who came brought with them their own camera equipment.

The photographic history of Rhodes began in 1850, when Claudius Galen Wheelhouse, an English surgeon and amateur photographer, took the first

photo – of the Rhodian knights’ Naillac Tower, before its collapse in an earthquake. Then, in 1853, British diplomat Dominic E. Colnaghi produced some calotypes; in 1857, Scotsman James Graham immortalized the Street of the Knights; and in 1862, Francis Bedford, escorting the Prince of Wales on an educational tour, took three photographs of the island. In their wake came many photographers, amateur and professional, who managed to stop time with their cameras and deliver the past to to us, imprinted on photographic paper. In their photos, we can find a story of an island at the cusp of change – from occupation to freedom, from war to peace.

Bedford photograph

(Left) A panoramic view of the Old Town from the Naillac Tower, prior to its destruction.

This splendid photograph was taken by the Englishman Francis Bedford on May 15, 1862, as he accompanied the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) on an educational journey through the Near and Far East.

BAREFOOT SUMMER

A boy at the seashore, photographed by the Nobel laureate George Seferis. Children were always a focus of the poet-diplomat’s interest, and he took this photo during a visit to Rhodes with his wife in 1955.

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IN PICTURES

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THE TWILIGHT OF THE OTTOMAN ERA

The Marine Gate, photographed by French architect Lucien Roy, in 1911, one year before the conquest of the island by the Italian army.

The period of Ottoman rule represented for Rhodes a time of decline and of nostalgia for the greatness of antiquity.

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IN PICTURES

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Deer and Wolf

The entrance to the port at Mandraki, with the deer symbolizing Rhodes and the wolf symbolizing Rome. The Italian conquerors, believing that they would remain on the island forever, invested in the construction of imposing buildings and a sweeping renovation of the New Town.

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IN PICTURES

FINDING JOY

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Photographer Maria Chrousaki captures a moment when orphaned children, taken in during the Greek Civil War, dance in school celebrations at the Pedoupoli (“Children’s Home) in the village of Kalathos. These homes were founded in 1947, on the initiative of Queen Frederica, to protect children in rural communities from the paidomazoma (the mass round-up and transportation of children to Communist countries) during the war.

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IN PICTURES

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Joining Greece

March 31, 1947. One of the most striking photos of Antonis Pachos. A crowd that includes public officals has gathered to observe the lowering of the British Union Jack and the raising of the Greek flag over the Governor’s Palace. So began the transition period of Greek military rule on the island that would continue until March 7, 1948, when Rhodes officially became part of the Greek state.

Visible in the foreground, kneeling, is the first elected Mayor of Rhodes, Gavriil Haritos.

Dancing Peasants

A celebrant in traditional vraka breeches dances in a church courtyard in the village of Embonas in 1927. Religious celebrations and festivals were the main source of enjoyment and entertainment for the local population. The sight of ordinary peasants in traditional costumes was striking to both villagers and foreign visitors.

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THEN & NOW

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The Tourism Chronicles In the beginning were the Italians... Then the jet-set arrived, making Rhodes the “in” place to go. In their wake came the charter crowd of the 1970s. What does the future hold?

© ANTONIS PACHOS ARCHIVE

BY Olga Char ami

Aristotle Onassis takes Winston Churchill for a ride, in 1959.

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© GETTY IMAGES/IDEAL IMAGE, MINISTRY OF CULTURE AND SPORTS/EPHORATE OF ANTIQUITIES OF THE DODECANESE

Tourists have been visiting the acropolis of Lindos in great numbers since the 1970s.

© ANTONIS PACHOS ARCHIVE

King Paul and Queen Frederica of Greece on the set of “The Guns of Navarone” (1960) at Epta Piges, with cast members Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn and others.

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ack in the 1920s, an Italian documentary titled “L’Estate a Rodi” was made. It can be seen on YouTube. Its purpose was not solely tourism promotion; it was filmed and shown in the framework of Fascist propaganda. It was, however, the first time Rhodes had been presented to a European cinema audience. In the film, the camera zooms in on Italian public buildings and Italian farming villages and their new settlers, on the Old Town where the Italians were carrying out extensive restoration, and on the Rhodians themselves, shown dancing in traditional dress or going about their daily lives.

It had been Mussolini’s dream to make Rhodes a resort for Italians.

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During their occupation, the Italians built the military airport of Maritsa (which served as the island’s main airport for 40 years); the hydrotherapy facilities at Kallithea; a racetrack; a golf course; and numerous hotels, the most lavish of which was the Grande Albergo delle Rose, advertised as “the hotel with 160 rooms and 80 bathrooms.” Its guests came in by hydroplane not only from Italy but from Egypt, Israel and elsewhere as well.

Despite their desire to remain on the island for good, the Italians were forced to leave after surrendering to the Germans following the Battle of Rhodes in 1943. They left behind some impressive works, made even more noteworthy by the fact that the rest of

the country had been devastated by bombardments. Their “legacy” also included the special tariff and tax regime for the Dodecanese, which was kept in place even after Rhodes, along with the other Dodecanese islands, was formally united with Greece. Up to 1981, when Greece joined the EEC, visitors to Rhodes could buy tax-free items such as drinks, cigarettes and brand-name clothing items, which were not even imported into the rest of the country.

This gave enormous impetus to domestic tourism. Many still remember the elegant umbrellas and, in particular, the suits, tailored on the island for much less than they would have cost in Athens.

In post-war Greece, tourism was

© JACQUES MALIGNON/CONDE NAST/GETTY IMAGES/IDEAL IMAGE

Famous Canadian model Dayle Haddon poses with a Lindos resident and her donkey, during a fashion shoot for Vogue Magazine in 1976.

seen as the quickest way to achieve economic growth, raise the morale of the Greeks, westernize society and introduce new lifestyle models. Rhodes was one of the few destinations where all the ingredients to achieve this were already in place. Bright sun, perfect climate, long beaches and fascinating antiquities, in fact all the main elements of Greece’s “identity,” feature here, along with stunningly exotic architecture dating to the time of the Knights and the periods of Ottoman and Italian rule.

The film industry, too, helped advertise the uniqueness of Rhodes. Cinemagoers, at first in Greece but soon all over the world, began to see – on the silver screen – cyclists riding along

impressive coastal streches, bathers swimming in crystal-clear waters, and couples falling in love in the great Rotunda at Kallithea. In rapid succession a number of Greek and international movies were made here, facilitated by low production costs, while the mayor at the time, Michael Petridis, who is still fondly remembered by many Rhodians, also lent a helping hand by inviting celebrities for holidays at the luxury “Hotel of the Roses”. Thanks to films such as “Anna Roditi” (1948), “Surprise Package” (1960) with Yul Brynner, “The Guns of Navarone” (1961) with Gregory Peck and Antony Quinn, “Cruise to Rhodes” (1960) and “Kiss the Girls” (1964), parts of the island became famous on a global scale.

Rhodes soon became a destination for the international jet set.

Aristotle Onassis could be seen eating octopus at the Alexis Τaverna with Winston Churchill.

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The Greek National Tourism Organization also made a significant contribution by restoring buildings and erecting the Rhodes Xenia, one of a series of modern hotels at the forefront of efforts to promote tourism. Local businessmen also built a number of luxury hotels. “The Italians left us 700 beds and today we have 100,000,” says Vassilis Minaidis, honorary president of the Association of Rhodes Hoteliers, which was established in 1949. “The big tour operators got in on the action in the 1960s, when the charter flights began.

At the time, most visitors were from Sweden. They came from Stockholm in propeller-driven aircraft in 7-8 hours.

Shortly after, the Germans began to arrive, on vessels from Yugoslavia, booking through Touropa, the forerunner of today’s Tui.” Rhodes soon became a destination for the international jet set. Aristotle Onassis could be seen wandering about or eating octopus at the Alexis Taverna with Winston Churchill; David Gilmour bought a house in Lindos, another Pink Floyd member, Richard Wright, met and later married Franka, owner of the legendary Qupi Bar in Lindos, while Boney M and ABBA, two of the biggest groups of the time, appeared at the Aquarius Club in Rhodes Town. Even

Today, Faliraki is more of a family destination.

The Water Park, seen here, is one of the biggest in Europe.

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the Palace of the Grand Master hosted European beauty contests!

This was also the time of the phenomenon known as “kamakia” (lit. “harpoons”), lotharios dressed in bell-bottoms and half-open shirts that invariably revealed a gold chain hanging from the neck, who were a big hit among liberated northern European females.

“Rhodes was a real hot spot in the 1970s.

Greek women rarely had pre-marital sexual relations. In contrast, romances with foreign women were a daily occurrence,” says 62-year-old Yiannis Klouvas, these days the President of the Association of Restaurateurs, then owner of the some of the top discotheques on the island, who is married to a Finnish tourist he met at the time. “But it wasn’t

just the sex. We took them dancing, we showed them around the island and so there were many love affairs.”

The phenomenon also had social implications, for Rhodian philanderers suddenly had an incentive to remain on the island instead of going to sea to earn a living. At the same time, they were initiated into a cosmopolitan culture and – albeit unwittingly – became magnets of attraction for tourism, since many of these northern European women would come back for more, bringing their female friends with them. Many foreigners had already begun to settle permanently on the island, but the “kamakia” phenomenon reinforced this trend, as it was not uncommon for local men to marry their summer loves.

In the 1980s, Rhodes’ tourism image began to change after a new law was passed, permitting the erection of small, lower category accommodations.

Where in previous decades large luxury hotels had dominated, the island now filled with rooms to let, managed by people with no experience whatsoever in tourism. Bed supply gradually exceeded demand and tour operators, who were always waiting in the wings, took advantage of the low standard of services to reduce prices.

© GETTY IMAGES/IDEAL IMAGE

© EPA/EIRINI ELEFTHERAKI

British tourists having fun in Faliraki; this resort became for a time the symbol of “bad” tourist behavior before local authorities took steps to clean up its image.

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“During the day Faliraki is a family destination where kids play on the beach.

After sunset the nightlife is still very lively, though without the excesses of the past.”

A river of humanity seems to flow through the streets of Old Town.

July 2000: Young English tourists have sex in public in the alleyways of the village of Faliraki and drunken women dance topless on the hoods of cars. Disorderly crowds of tourists wander about, bottles in hand. They will never learn anything about the real Rhodes, nor will they remember who or how many they slept with the previous night. Beginning around 1995, several tour operators had discovered in this once quiet village an amazing beach, numerous cheap rooms for rent and a handful of bars. They promptly voted it the perfect destination for young UK tourists wishing to live for a week or two without constraints.

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In 2002, a total of 431,481 passengers arrived on a record number of charter flights from the UK; this represented one-third of all charter flights that year.

By 2005, the village had fully adapted to its new guests (from English breakfast in the cafés to soccer games on giant screens, you felt that you were in the UK) and the locals were constantly reporting cases of vandalism. “It wasn’t the English in general, but certain hooligans who created the problem for tourism. At first they would go to Trianta Beach at Ialysos. By the time they started heading to Faliraki they were out of control.

I personally told the British ambassador

that they would have to get rid of them; they had become insufferable,” explains Mr. Minaidis.

The first allegations of rape and the first accidental deaths due to alcohol prompted negative reports in the British media. Local organizations responded and the tour operators were forced to change their plans. Faliraki was “cleaned up” overnight, as the locals say. And for three or four years it looked like it had been closed down for good.

“Today Faliraki lives in two worlds” says Aikaterini Gogou, president of the the Association of Qualified Tourist Guides of the Dodecanese. “One is that of the large, well-respected hotels and the other is that of the rented rooms.

During the day, it is a family destination where kids play on the beach. After sunset, the nightlife is still very lively, though without the excesses of the past.

The place is now very well policed.”

The idea of two worlds applies to the island in general. There is, indeed, a Rhodes of deluxe facilities, boutique hotels and a well-deserved reputation for amazing natural beauty and stunning historical attractions, but there’s also the Rhodes of rooms for rent at cut rates, of cheap package trips and of an infrastucture straining to cope with the two million tourists that arrive each year. Nevertheless, Rhodes is still a welcoming cosmopolitan destination whose ageless appeal has always brought the crowds. The island has always coped in the past and will undoubtedly find answers for the future.

experience GREECE IS

RHO D ES

THE BEST OF ALL WORLDS From sandy beaches to verdant mountains and from ancient temples to luxury resorts, the fourth largest island in Greece has a variety of options to offer its visitors.

Rhodes by painter Antonios Von Santorinios-Santorinakis / BRIDGEMAN IMAGES

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the world in a stroll Medieval walls enclose an enchanting microcosm, a place where different eras, cultures and architectural styles meet.

BY Olga Char ami

The courtyard of the Hospital of the Knights, which now houses the Archaeological Museum of Rhodes. © CLAIRY MOUSTAFELLOU, MINISTRY OF CULTURE AND SPORTS/EPHORATE OF ANTIQUITIES OF THE DODECANESE

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ime is locked out. Everyone else is within: ancient Greeks, Byzantines, Ottomans, Jews and Italians. This is, however, the romantic view; in truth, they are not alone, these wonderful ghosts. With them are tourists in their thousands, archaeologists, tour guides, artists, permanent residents, business people and touts, all continuing to write the history of the Old Town of Rhodes, a story which has been unfolding for the past 2,400 years.

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And this is why I approach those mighty walls, four kilometers long, with some trepidation about what I will find. How harmoniously does the glorious and intriguing past coexist with the intensely tourism-oriented present? The monumental with the commercial? The Old Town’s designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site (assigned in 1988) with the mass nature of a global brand name in tourism which was already being developed as early as the 1950s?

At any rate, these are my thoughts as I pass through Liberty Gate, one of the 11 gates affording access to the Old Town and the first that you encounter when coming from the harbor of Mandraki. It’s early in the morning, and I’ve already checked that there are no cruise ships in the harbor; otherwise I would see nothing but people. My first impression is one of awe. I suddenly find myself in a time of knights: only porous sandstone and cobbled streets

as far as the eye can see. It is not easy to absorb this. You have the feeling that if you take a few more steps, you’ll see modern buildings, ugly ones perhaps, or at least something completely out of place. Or that gently pushing a wall will result in its collapse, as if it were some flimsy film set at Cinecittà – especially if you know that Italians, too, have left their mark here. After they seized the island from the Turks in 1912, they saw themselves as successors to the knights

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and set about restoring or reconstructing many of the medieval buildings. But have no fear, no wall will collapse and there is nothing ugly, at least not in the northern part known as the Kollakio, or Knights’ Quarter.

The Knights Hospitaller of St. John captured Rhodes in 1309. In the Old Town, where they established their administrative center, there was already a fortified Byzantine settlement occupying 175,000 square meters which had

In the cool of the evening, the Old Town’s narrow streets and squares (like Hippokratous Square, pictured here) fill with sightseers.

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I enter high-ceilinged halls with period furniture and chandeliers as well as enormous fireplaces featuring coats of arms. When I emerge into the courtyard, I feel somewhat disoriented, both in time and space.

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been built on the site of an ancient city that dated back to 408 BC. The Knights expanded the area of the town to 420,000 square meters and protected it with three lines of defensive fortifications. This was also how they handed it over to the Ottomans, after a long siege in 1522. The new rulers made only slight alterations to the fortifications but changed the use and form of the buildings, converting some churches into mosques. When the Italians occupied Rhodes in 1912, they restored the Knights’ Quarter to its former state.

This area, named Kollakio, accounted for one-third of the old city. The remaining part, known as the Bourgo, was where the common people lived.

One of the imposing rooms of the Palace of the Grand Master, restored by the Italian rulers in the early 20th century.

The amalgam resulting from the coexistence and the exchange of different populations over the centuries is what makes the Old Town of Rhodes unique.

“You don’t really need a guide here.

Even if you haven’t read anything, even if no one has explained anything, you can see the history all around. Like an illustrated children’s book,” says Aikaterini Gogou, president of the Association of Qualified Tourist Guides of the Dodecanese.

And the truth is that, in just one block, you can see: ancient ruins; a Byzantine church; an Ottoman mosque; and a plaque honoring the Fascist leader Mussolini. “Everything is part of the history of Rhodes. And we must respect everything. For instance, some visitors become angry when they see the plaque.

But this, too, is a piece of Rhodes. The squares you see today are the results of German bombardments; they weren’t there before,” Aikaterini explains.

MARIA KOLLIA A lifetime IN THE OLD TOWN Archaeologist Maria Kollia, president of the Association for the Preservation of Rhodes’ Architectural and Cultural Heritage, has lived in a beautiful house on the Street of the Knights for more than 45 years. She remembers when fellow residents used to festoon the street with their drying laundry (a custom that is prohibited today) and she recalls, too, the milkman bringing fresh milk to her doorstep every day. “People envy me for living here,” she says, “but they can’t imagine some of the problems I have with the house. The limestone walls retain humidity like a sponge. It’s almost impossible to keep warm in the winter because the structure is nearly five meters high. But I wouldn’t for the world change the fact that I live in a place that is full of memories and history. This is more or less the spot where the Sanctuary of the Sun God was located, and the Head of Helios itself was found almost right beneath my house.” - m a r i a k o r a ch a i G R E E C E IS

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THE KNIGHTS’ QUARTER After entering through the Liberty Gate, you get the first hint of what a palimpsest the Old Town is in Symi Square and Argyrokastrou Square next to it. In just a small radius are the ruins of a Temple of Aphrodite, a preserved section of Hellenistic fortifications, the 11th-century Church of Our Lady of the Castle, the old arsenal of the Knights (which houses a fine collection of folk art) and the Municipal Art Gallery. A little further on is the Mansion of Hassan Bey and the Inn of the “Tongue” of Auvergne, in the beautiful garden of which there is a café. The inns were where the Knights gathered, each one corresponding to the language (“tongue”) they spoke. Most are located on the celebrated Street of the Knights,

This Turkish coffee shop on Sokratous Street has been in business since the 14th century.

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“You don’t really need a guide here. Even if you haven’t read anything, even if no one has explained anything, you can see the history all around,” says tourist guide Aikaterini Gogou.

which begins here, next to Museum Square and the Arnaldo Gate. A jewelry store, clothes and souvenir shops and a bank are housed in medieval buildings. A group of street artists have set up their easels. Two young wandering musicians rehearse, seated on the steps next to the Archaeological Museum – the former Hospital of the Knights.

There, you simply don’t know what to admire the most – the building itself, with its impressive two-story gallery and spacious inner courtyard, or the marvelous Hellenistic sculptures on display inside.

Fully immersed in the atmosphere, I am now walking along the cobblestoned Street of the Knights, which has remained unchanged for centuries. Most of the buildings house offices of the archaeological service or serve as homes for archaeologists and employees of the ephorate of antiquities, the only people with the right to live here. As a result, visitors can’t see the interiors, except for that of the Inn of the “Tongue” of France, which houses the French Consulate and on occasion hosts cultural events. I observe the blazons, the architectural details

Exploring the side streets of Bourgo, the Old Town neighborhood where the common people lived.

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on the façades, the statue of the Virgin Mary in the 14th-century Church of the Holy Trinity, and I feel that an unwritten law imposes silence and discretion. Those around me probably feel the same thing; you could hear a pin drop. Until, that is, the sound of a car abruptly shatters the enchantment, even though no vehicles are allowed in the Old Town. The law, however, has never been enforced for the permanent residents.

The Street of the Knights ends at the Palace of the Grand Master, which served as the Knights’ administrative center. Much of the edifice was rebuilt by the Italians who, some say, made it even more impressive. I enter high-ceilinged halls with period furniture and chandeliers as well as enormous fireplaces featuring coats of arms. I walk on mosaic floors dating back to the Hellenistic period, which the Italians brought from Kos. When I emerge into the courtyard, I feel somewhat disoriented, both in time and space.

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A good way to return to the present is to stroll atop the walls. The walk begins in the Palace courtyard but is permitted only between 12:00 and 15:00; that is to say, at the worst possible time, when the Rhodian sun can be merciless. After 30-40 minutes, you reach the Red Gate to the south of the town. Along the way, you’ll be rewarded with a view over parts of the new town and the sea, too.

Another way to come back to the here and now is to leave the Old Town via the exquisite D’Amboise Gate, taking in the formidable bastions or, even better, walking down in the medieval moat, which has been turned into an attractive park much loved by locals.

There, on the “border” between old and new Rhodes, children and dogs play freely, peddlers set up stalls, cyclists enjoy a ride and street artists sing or paint. At the park stands the aptly named “Medieval Moat Theater,” which hosts marvelous performances in summer.

GIORGOS TRIANTAFYLLOU the art of icons “Children that grow up on tourism-oriented islands like Rhodes don’t believe that you can make a living from art. We’ve been trying to change this over the past few years by opening up our workshops, inviting international artists and organizing events in which the public can participate.” Giorgos was taught the art of painting religious icons in the monastic community of Meteora in central Greece and then went to Italy to study the fresco method of mural painting. So far, he has done icon work for 30 churches across the island. Passionate about his art, he shows tourists who are interested in Byzantine churches around and then takes them back to his workshop where they get to make their own fresco paintings to take back home. “The churches are one of the most authentic aspects of Rhodes.

For centuries, they were the places where the neighborhood gathered, and today we want to make them places for people from around the world to come together.” - m a r i a k o r a ch a i

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Elakati Luxury Boutique Hotel is the perfect place to experience true Greek hospitality.

It’s an adults-only hotel located in the center of Rhodes, just a few minutes from the Old Town, a short walk from sandy Elli Beach and close to the best shops, restaurants and bars.

The hotel’s themed architecture is an attraction in its own right, with every floor boasting a unique design and each of the 11 suites reflecting different aspects of the natural beauty and history of Rhodes. Using environmentally-friendly materials and combining modern comforts with traditional touches, Elakati has created a welcoming establishment with Greek hospitality that turns every guest into a friend. Equally appealing is the hotel’s healthy lifestyle philosophy, aptly expressed in their wooden bicycles, the perfect way to explore Rhodes Town.

Elakati Kitchen Bar is located on the ground floor of Elakati Luxury Boutique Hotel. A restaurant-bar where you can discover Greek gastronomy with dishes inspired from the island of Rhodes, in a warm and welcoming environment.

The menu is a fusion of flavors; a modern twist to traditional Greek and Rhodian dishes, paired with fine wines and signature cocktails to make dining a fascinating experience.

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29 Lochagou Fanouraki, 85100 Rhodes • Τel: (+30) 2241.070.688 • Email: info@elakati.com • www.elakati.com

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LEFTERIS SKARPETAS Inspired craft Lefteris practically grew up in his father’s goldsmith’s workshop. Today, he’s one of the propagators of the age-old craft of jewelry-making that flourished on the island until the mid-20th century, when there were still a number of jewelers working here, many involved in exporting as well. Their designs used motifs related to Rhodes, including the stag, the knight’s cross and the rose. Inspired by the fascinating medieval landscape in which he lives, Lefteris has moved beyond these older designs. “I’ve lived in the Old Town for 20 years and I’m still in awe of it,” he says. “You can’t help but be moved by what you see in this well-preserved town: the battalions, the blond hue of the rocks, the arches. One of my most recent pieces is a pair of earrings shaped like the Old Town’s street lamps.

For the older generations, Rhodian jewelry was like an ambassador for the island.

By creating modern designs with historic references, I want to continue what they began and prompt younger generations to wear accessories that relate to Rhodes.” - m a r i a k o r a ch a i

THE BOURGO From the Palace of the Grand Master, you can continue in a southerly direction along Orfeos Street or Panetiou Street and enter the area known as the Bourgo, which was separated from the Kollakio by a pre-existing Byzantine wall. Initially, this was the area inhabited by Greeks, but during the period of Ottoman rule, it was Jews and Turks who lived here – the Greeks, who were expelled from the Old Town, founded Mandraki. Later, they all coexisted here, just as they do today. About 2,000 people reside within the walls, including many Rhodian Muslims. It is estimated that a further 6,000 work here during the summer.

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(overhanging enclosed wooden balconies), small porticos, arches and hidden courtyards. These narrow walkways are full of fragrances, colors and sounds.

The imposing Suleymaniye Mosque, originally built in 1522 and reconstructed in 1808, suddenly comes into view and takes my breath away. I enter the Muslim Library just opposite and gaze at Arabic and Ottoman manuscripts, unable to understand a word. Next door is the Clock Tower, built by Fethi Pasha in the mid-19th century. The tower now houses a café and for €5 you can enjoy a coffee and climb to the top, where you can see the Kollakio and Palace on one side and the Bourgo on the other, as well as the walls by the harbor and the sea beyond it all; it is a panorama not easily forgotten. Today, however, not every-

Local celebrities Areti Georgoudiou and her parrott Rico never tire of posing for tourists. This talking bird might say “I love you” or curse at you, depending on his mood.

© GETTY IMAGES/IDEAL IMAGE, MINISTRY OF CULTURE AND SPORTS/EPHORATE OF ANTIQUITIES OF THE DODECANESE

Like an Eastern bazaar, Sokratous Street has always been a lively shopping area. It terminates near the Suleymaniye Mosque.

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There are many reminders in the Old Town of the long years of Turkish rule.

Only archaeologists and employees of the local ephorate of antiquities are allowed to stay in the restored houses on the Street of the Knights.

thing I see out there is a welcome sight.

The cruise ship pulling in is the signal that the Old Town will soon be crammed with thousands of tourists. I hurriedly descend and take Sokratous, the main shopping street.

I don’t need anything, but I find myself ready to start shopping. Expensive jewelry and brand-name bags hang next to gaudy souvenirs, tin suits of armor and tourist sandals. A river of people sweeps me eastward and among the thousands of objects for sale I spot a few stores, including some antique shops, that look like they might be worth a visit. I also spy some Ottoman fountains adorned with carved arabesques. Sokratous Street ends at Ippokratous Square with its marble fountain, which is always full of pigeons and is the main rendezvous spot in this part 98

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of the Old Town. In the narrow streets around here – Miltiadou, Platonos, Evripidou – there are dozens of bars and clubs which at night make the Old Town unrecognizable, even to the point of insult.

On the steps of the Castellania, once the Commercial Court of the Knights and now the Municipal Library, couples flirt, students pass their time and tourists rest. A faceless crowd and countless touts reveal to me the other face of the Old Town, one which I had hoped to avoid but that becomes even more intrusive as I make my way along Aristotelous Street and into Evreon Martyron Square. Here the restaurant barkers are completely unrestrained as they loudly pitch the specialties of their respective eateries: moussaka, tzatziki, Greek salad. One has enlisted

the assistance of a parrot and another is trying to get tourists to promise they will come in the evening. “Do you really believe you’ll get them to come like this?” I ask him. “They always come,” he replies with a laugh.

LOST IN THE ALLEYWAYS My suffering ends a few meters further on. I sit down on the steps of Our Lady of the Bourgo, a 14th-century church built in the Late Gothic style, now mostly in ruins. The boys playing football in front of me are bragging incessantly about their favorite team, Diagoras F.C. Fortunately, there is still plenty of Old Town to see. South of Sokratous and Aristotelous streets, life continues at a steady pace, whether there is a cruise ship in the harbor or not, whether it is summer or winter. All

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The property has 17 room types and a choice of mountain or sea views. Studios have direct access to a swim-up pool while the resort’s five villas all come with private pools.

A selection of dining experiences Amada Colossos Resort offers a selection of 16 food and beverage outlets, including six restaurants, an old-school Greek café and a patisserie, as well as pool and cocktail bars.

An idyllic holiday location There’s both an adult zone and a dedicated family zone.

The Family Zone features a full-scale water park and age-appropriate activities at three different young persons’ clubs.

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For further information and bookings, visit www.amadacolossosresort.com

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Argyrokastrou Square, near Liberty Gate, is the first charming Old Town spot most tourists see and, naturally, a popular stop for selfies.

The beautiful fountain originally adorned the courtyard of an paleochristian church in the village of Arnitha.

NIKOS KASSERIS Forty years of photography

you need to do is… get lost.

This is what I do. With no idea where the nearest gate is, I simply stroll along the alleyways. I recognize the Muslim households from the shoes left outside the doors. People greet me with “kalimera,” not “moussaka.” Children play in the streets and grandmothers sit on the steps outside their home or in yards filled with flowers, chatting away.

I walk past the Kahal Shalom Synagogue, Byzantine churches, mosques, fountains, brothels and boutique guest-houses – all in one small area. In Arionos Square, I admire the soft curves of the 16th-century Yeni Hamam, where up until a few years ago the locals could enjoy a Turkish bath, just like in the old 100

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days; now they’re eagerly awaiting its renovation. The coffee shops under the trees next to the hamam are in no way associated with the unpleasant aspects of mass tourism; in the evening, they turn into high-quality bars with good music and impeccable service.

Still further south, near St. John’s Gate, is the Kokkini Porta Rossa, a quiet boutique hotel that has been open for three years and has helped transform an entire neighborhood previously suffering from a bad reputation. Its owners, Nikos Voulgaridis and his wife Angela, convince me with what they’ve achieved that the Old Town, despite some tourism excesses, is still finding ways to endure and remain magical.

His camera lens has immortalized both the important events and everyday life on the island since the ‘70s. There have been exhibitions of his work in Greece and abroad, and he has published several books of photography. In 1999, just before the turn of the millennium, he invited three renowned photographers from Magnum Photos to Rhodes. They documented the effects of the tourism boom, visited traditional houses and discovered the island’s unspoiled beauty.

Mr. Kasseris explains why he chose to show off Rhodes as it is in the winter: “When tourist activity ceases in the medieval town, the houses are so close to each other that you can hear the lives of others. It reminds me of the neighborhood feel that it had back in 1960, when I first arrived – and, of course, there’s also the goosebumps that you get when you’re walking within this imposing scenery of history and symbols. Sometimes you think you can even hear the clatter of horses’ hooves.” - m a r i a k o r a ch a i

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In search of a building with the intention of creating a hotel in the Old Town of Rhodes, we came across a house which we instantly knew was what we wanted.

The homey feeling when we walked into it, together with its touching history, made our decision easy.

Where the house currently stands there was once a stately knight’s residence with a small church dedicated to Saint John. When the Turks occupied Rhodes in 1522, the house became home to Turkish, Jewish and Greek families, all living together. Their different origins and religions didn’t stop them from caring for each other and raising their children together in the shade of the mulberry tree. The rooms of our hotel bear the names of some of these residents: Gülbin, Katina, Deniz, Irini, Orhan, Michalis.

Our hotel is the first building one sees when entering the Old Town from the Gate of St. John. The

pitched battles fought here in days long gone made locals change the name of the gate to “Kókkini Porta” (Greek for “Red Door”). Throughout the restoration, the building’s character and peculiarities were respected: the creaks from the wooden floor boards, the smell of the lime plaster, the roughness of its stones, the 300-year-old mulberry tree. At the same time, we added our own welcoming touches: furniture, lighting, art objects and soft carpets give every space a warm, familiar atmosphere. Today, luxury has been tempered with simplicity and modern design elements appear alongside old collectable items.

We have made a small hotel for just a few select guests who enjoy our personal attention and care, and who value the notion that this house has been offering serenity and warmth to its residents, permanent or temporary, for centuries.

• Kokkini Porta, Old Town, Rhodes 85131, Greece • Tel. (+30) 2241.075.114 • Fax (+30) 2241.075.111 • Email: welcome@kokkiniporta.com • www.kokkiniporta.com

© ILLUSTRATION: IGNATIOS MANAVIS

[ POI N TS OF I N T ER E ST ]

Street of the Knights This is the most beautiful street of the Old Town, with the “inns” or lodgings of the different languages (or “tongues”) of the Knights Hospitaller, where meetings were held and visitors accommodated. In the Inn of the Tongue of France is the French consulate, which often organizes exhibitions. The Inn of the Tongue of Spain, the largest of all, also hosts various events. The first building you encounter at the lower end of the street was constructed by the Italians and now houses the tourist information center.

Decorative Arts Collection of Rhodes The city’s renovated ethnographic museum is housed in a Hospitaller-era building known as the Arsenal. It contains objects of folk art and everyday use, including colorful pottery, wood carvings and furniture. • Open Tue-Sun 9.00-17.00 • Tel. (+30) 2241.070.253 • Tickets €2 The Synagogue In the 1930s, some 6,500 Jews lived in Rhodes, where they operated six synagogues. Today, the community has dwindled to 20 people, whose one remaining Synagogue (Kahal Shalom), founded in 1577, is the oldest in Greece. Accompanied by Sephardic-Rhodian music, you can tour the building and see artifacts of daily life belonging to the community. For

the Jewish holidays of September or on special occasions (weddings, etc), a guest rabbi is in attendance. • Tel. (+30) 2241.022.364 • Open Sun-Fri, 10.00-15.00 Our Lady of the Castle Believed to have been built in the 11th century, this Byzantine-style church was converted by the Knights into a three-aisled Gothic house of worship, and then into a mosque by the Ottomans. • Open Tue-Sat, 9:0017:00 • Tickets €2 Municipal ART Gallery A fine collection of modern Greek art, hangs in a gorgeous Italian building on Symi Square. You can admire the works of leading artists including Yannis Tsarouchis, Nikos Engonopoulos and Theophilos, observing how the socio-political changes of the 19th and 20th centuries influenced Greek art. • Τel. (+30) 2241.023.766 • Open Mon-Fri, 8.0021.00 • Tickets €2 Ottoman monuments Six mosques stand in the Old Town of Rhodes. Most impressive is the Suleymaniye Mosque, while most distinctive is the Mehmet Aga Mosque, built entirely of wood. The most unique interior decoration you can find, however, is that of the Ibrahim Pasha Mosque, which still opens its doors for prayer three times a day.

Also worth a visit is the Hafiz Ahmed Agha Library, with a collection of manuscripts and photographs. • Tel. (+30) 2241.074.090 • Open Mon-Sat 9.30-15.00 Byzantine churches About 30 Byzantine churches exist in the Old Town, but they are not regularly accessible. The only time you can enter them is the last weekend of September, during the Open Doors event organized by the non-profit organization Rhodes International Culture & Heritage Society.

A €10 ticket will grant you access to the Palace, the Archaeological Museum, the Decorative Arts Collection and Our Lady of the Castle Church.

SHOPPING

EOLOS Here you’ll find refined jewelry made by Greek artisans using natural materials, such as precious stones. Also on sale are objects d’art, decorative ceramics and objects with practical uses. • 44 Sokratous • Tel. (+30) 2241.024.203

BY maria korachai

SABIN Sabin and her husband Vangelis create unique wooden accessories like bags and bowties.

In her shop, you’ll also find wooden sunglasses as well as knitted bags by other designers. • 6 Sofokleous • Tel. (+30) 699.250.6147

IAKOVOS SANDALS If you’re looking for leather sandals like those worn by the ancient Greeks, head to the family workshop Iakovos Handmade Sandals (22 Aristotelous • Tel. (+30) 2241.034.464), operating since 1946. For more modern designs and funky touches, opt for Exis (89 Sokratous • Tel. (+30) 2241.024.418).

KOUNAKIS JEWELRY The third generation of Kounakis jewelers continues the family tradition of goldsmithery with fine creations that take traditional Rhodian art one step further. At their shop, you’ll also find well-known watch and jewelry brands.

• Pindarou & 26-28 Byzantiou • Tel. (+30) 2241.030.276.

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WHEN IN GREECE This Greek brand, known for its modern souvenirs and travel gadgets, was founded in Rhodes. Apart from the company’s regular selection, the shop here is also stocked with Rhodes-specific souvenirs featuring emblems and landmarks of the island. • 153 Sokratous • Tel. (+30) 2241.030.374.

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Palace of the Grand Master Once the magnificent headquarters of the Order of the Knights of St John, its spacious halls are rich with medieval decoration recreated by Italian restorers, including columns, capitals and Hellenistic, Roman and Early Christian mosaic floors, which the Italians themselves brought in from Kos. The ground floor hosts a permanent exhibition of artifacts dating from the early Christian era to the period of Ottoman rule.

Truly unique experiences can be had in the Palace, such as the concert scheduled for 2/9, with Renaissance songs by the Mixed Choir of Rhodes and the Berthold Gymnasium choir from Freiburg, Germany. • Tel. (+30) 2241.365.270 • Open 8:00-20:00 • Tickets €6

© SAKIS GIOUMPASIS

A bird’s eye view of the New Town, which stands on the very end of the northern part of the island, with a beach unfolding across the entire tip of the peninsula.

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A Beautiful Crush The more modern part of Rhodes town may get crowded and crazy, but that’s no reason to snub locations like Mandraki, rich both in history and in things to do.

BY Maria Kor achai

M

andraki, perhaps the New Town’s most photographed spot, smells like sunscreen.

The sun is at its zenith and the thermometer is hovering at 40ºC, yet none of the hundreds of tourists sunning themselves seems to care. The foot traffic follows the contours of the coastline, making for interesting people-watching, and the sea is right there when the need for a refreshing dip arises.

Many hold their phones aloft to snap their own postcard shots: of the two columns crowned by the bronze stags that are the symbol of Rhodes (some TripAdvisor users comment they expected them to be much bigger); of the

fortress of Saint Nicholas; of the medieval windmills; and of the great bastion walls that separate the old and new chapters of the island’s history. Meanwhile, in defiance of the frenzy of pic clicks, a street artist tries to pause time the old-fashioned way. He’s painting a small watercolor of the port with the castle in the background at the small easel he’s set up on the promenade. He’s also filtering reality, as there’s no sign in his painting of the huge yacht anchored beside the two smaller wooden sailboats he has included.

Rhodes’ New Town, this amazing combination of medieval battlements, eclectic 20th-century architecture, tall

modern buildings, sandy beach and turquoise waters, has room for everyone. The settlement started growing outside the castle walls after 1522 when the Turks occupied Rhodes and threw all other nationalities out of the Old Town. Today, what you see around you is indicative of just how busy things are: traditional caique fishing boats alongside luxury mega-yachts; bicycles darting around tour buses; a row of cheesy restaurants trying to attract business with garish photos of Greek salad and moussaka; barkers shouting for custom outside bars and cafés festooned with big bamboo armchairs.

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Wine and good company on pedestrianized Kosti Palama Street.

Many hold their phones aloft to snap their own postcard shots of the two columns crowned by the bronze stags that are the symbol of Rhodes.

Great photos can also be taken at night, when the monuments are illuminated by warm lights imitating the tones of the sunset.

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One of the most charming edifices in town housing the offices of the Prefecture of the South Aegean.

One of the establishments that stands out in this sprawl is the Aktaion, an officer’s club during the Italian occupation and now an attractive café and pastry shop with what is arguably the best shade in town: on the menu you’ll read about the enormous Ficus benjamina that has been growing in its courtyard since 1947. I get a cup of orange juice – there are several spots along the beach that serve fresh fruit juices to go – and take a moment to examine Eleftherias (Liberty) Square, once the hub of new Rhodes as it was developed by the Italians and today an interesting spot to wait for your friends or your date.

Here is Evangelismos Church, a replica (built in 1925-29) of the Church of Saint John that once stood beside the Palace 108

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of the Grand Master. Inside the modern version, you can see murals painted by the celebrated Greek artist Photis Kontoglou and his students in the period between 1951 and 1961.

There aren’t many cities where the port authority, the regional authority offices and the post office are picture-worthy. Here, though, they are located in well-preserved eclectic mansions built by the Italians during the 1912-1943 occupation to house their administrative services. Perhaps the most unusual of these Italian buildings is the one that today hosts the Aquarium.

Built in 1934-1936 and standing on the island’s northernmost tip, it combines elements of vernacular and art deco architecture. It also has an amazing

underground tunnel, added in the final year of construction.

“Nice to meet you,” a little girl tells a langoustine as I explore the exhibits.

Walking around this dark, rocky labyrinth, you see tanks of all sizes holding species of fish and crustaceans, rare and common, most native to the Mediterranean but some which have emigrated here from the Indian and Pacific oceans.

Back at street level, you can forego the mundane souvenirs being sold along the coastal strip and buy a portrait of yourself instead from one of the artists at Rimini Square. The half-hour sitting goes by in a flash, and they always capture the contentedness you feel sitting in the shade, listening to the

song of the cicadas and looking up at the castle which, from this particular vantage point, is covered in a cascade of bougainvillea and other flowers.

Monte Smith, the hill that formed the acropolis of ancient Rhodes, is the perfect spot to enjoy the sunset. The hill is a protected archaeological site, so it has not been developed. This was not a fortified site in ancient times; instead, it served as a place for sanctuaries, temples, ancient public buildings and subterranean spaces of worship, and there are some impressive ruins to be seen. The benches dotted around afford romantic roosts for love birds of all ages, and there are beautiful views over the city and out to sea, stretching, on a clear day, all the way to the coast

of Asia Minor.

As soon as night falls, the city’s streets come awake with packed tables, inside and out, at its suddenly animated all-day bars. You can choose between the tourist joints where cocktails are served with the obligatory paper umbrella and pineapple slice, or the watering holes on the two pedestrianized roads where the locals have been gathering for the past two or three years: Kosti Palama Street for its pretty bars illuminated by small lanterns arranged across the branches of trees, or Theodoraki Street for the louder beat of house and dance music, and light shows.

Even though you hear them speaking English, German, Swedish, French

It may seem a little surreal, but this deck actually exists and is the most popular diving point on Rhodes.

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Once the hub of new Rhodes as it was developed by the Italians, Eleftherias (Liberty) Square is an interesting spot to wait for your friends or your date.

The Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation.

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A beachfront promenade overlooking the windmills of Mandraki and the fortress of Aghios Nikolaos (Saint Nicholas).

and other foreign languages, when Greeks are out they tend not to mingle with the tourists – a surprising phenomenon in Rhodes, which has a reputation for its randy romeos (known in Greek as kamakia, meaning harpoons for the way they got girls) and mixed marriages.

Back in the 1960s, when this was the island of the quick fling, the New Town was full of discos and young men would go out to pick up tourists, as Greek families were still quite conservative and did not allow the daughters out at night without a chaperone. These young men tended to sport large sideburns, garish shirts open to their bellybuttons, flared jeans and belts with loud buckles. With their reputations riding on the number of women they’d “bag,” they had all sorts of strategies, including learning

pick-up lines in different languages and finding ways to make an impression on the dance floor. “The clubs would play a few disco songs and then a lot of slow songs. We’d spot the girl we wanted and then ask her to dance just before the program changed. We’d whisper in her ear: ‘Do you like Rhodes?’ Or ‘Want to go somewhere else after?’” says Yiannis, who experienced that era in full. “The kamakia helped tourism and we got a lot of repeat female visitors.”

The AIDS epidemic soon put a stop to all that. Today, the representatives of the age of free of love are in their 50s and 60s and look back fondly on those days of madness, romance and thrills that were like a window onto the rest of the world.

“Are there any kamakia left?” I ask him. “Only on Facebook!” he answers.

Denizens of the deep at Rhodes Aquarium.

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Eternal Star This cosmopolitan town, with its famed ancient acropolis, is literally the hottest place on Rhodes.

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The whitewashed houses of Lindos and, crowning the landscape, the acropolis.

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he “Christina,” the private yacht of the late Aristotle Onassis, lying at anchor in the sea below the rock of the acropolis; David Gilmour strumming his guitar in a pebbled courtyard; Brigitte Bardot strolling among pure-white houses on a winding backstreet; these images could be blackand-white photos on the wall of the historic Mavrikos restaurant, an old favorite in Lindos since 1912, but they’re not – because “none of us thought to take photographs. We just took such scenes as part of ordinary life here,” explains chef and owner Dimitris Mavrikos.

Lindos was worshipped by the international jet set as early as the 1950s.

It was then what Mykonos is today. Locals watched as, in just a few years, their village was transformed into a dazzling destination known around the world.

“Onassis, Niarchos, Kennedy – they all passed through here. The FIAT tycoon Giovanni Agnelli had his own table at the restaurant. I remember him with his

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flowered swim trunks and Timberland shoes – which then were like gold for us – asking my father every morning what he was cooking that day. Every summer, we were brimming with VIPs: from wellto-do Europeans to Hollywood stars. At first, we gawked at them, awestruck, but after a while we got used to them. It seemed very natural to see Sophia Loren passing by, or Yul Brynner, or Barbra Streisand. I’ll never forget the first time Pink Floyd came into the restaurant.

The waiter didn’t recognize them and told me he wouldn’t serve those scruffy characters,” recalls the chef.

“The strange thing,” Mavrikos continues, “was that they didn’t go around the rest of the island, except for the occasional stroll around the Old Town.

They were all especially interested in Lindos.” It’s not difficult to understand why. Its architecture, evoking more the Cyclades than the Dodecanese, its three beaches with crystal clear waters and above all, literally as well as figuratively,

It is possible to get away from the crowds and the shops.

the acropolis, on rocky cliffs 116m high, where traces of ancient Greeks, Byzantines and the Knights of St. John all coexist, are reasons enough to love Lindos.

The roots of the town’s cosmopolitanism are lost in the mists of time. The acropolis served as a center of worship, starting sometime in the Bronze Age, and the two adjacent natural harbors aided the ancient city in becoming a great naval power in the 6th c. BC under the tyrant Cleobulus. In the time of the Byzantines and Hospitallers, the acropolis was transformed into an impregnable castle, which, for a while, operated as a fortified settlement in its own right.

Through the centuries, the town of Lindos persisted in exactly the same protected spot where it is today, nestled into

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Traces from every era reinforce just how strategic the acropolis was through the ages: remnants of the Hellenistic-era sanctuary co-exist with Early Christian chapels and Byzantine churches. The view in all directions is amazing.

The Temple of Athena Lindia, high on the acropolis.

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Pebbled floors and arched doorways with relief decorations are what characterize the courtyard of a typical captain’s house in Lindos.

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One of the features of the traditional Lindos house is the raised sleeping platform, or soufas.

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the hollow below the citadel – exhibiting even now much the same layout as it had in the past.

Today, Lindos is still one of the most popular destinations on Rhodes. A stream of humanity seems to flow perpetually through its central street. But not at midday. Then, the sun god Helios, worshipped on the island in antiquity, “prohibits” any movement. Along the town’s stone-paved lanes, even the cats forego their prowling. Merchants shelter within their shops; visitors foolhardy enough to be outside rest on stone benches or within shady passageways until the midday heat has passed. The sun’s blinding rays are reflected off whitewashed houses and little breeze penetrates the labyrinthine interior of Lindos – a village surrounded by barren mountains – where temperatures can reach 50 degrees Celsius.

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and lime, their walls reach thicknesses of 50cm. Externally, the walls are given uneven surfaces to create shade and drive away the heat. They also have skylights to allow air to circulate, a large interior arch and pebble-mosaic floors, called “hochlakia.” In the old days, the village wasn’t white with limewash as it is today; instead it was various shades of ocher. “Most homes underwent several interventions in the 1980s and 1990s, however others remain in their original state,” says the architect of the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Dodecanese, Maria-Christina Georgali.

In the 16th century, after the departure of the Knights, shipping flourished again in Lindos. The following century saw the construction of the famous Lindian sea captains’ houses, which combine details from earlier traditional dwellings with the medieval architecture of noble Rhodians. “Today, about thirty of them remain. Most have been bought

by Europeans. They are maintained in a very good state and many have all their

The alleys of Lindos are lined with shops offering a wide selection of items.

original furnishings, as well as sundry items brought back by the captains from their journeys around the Mediterranean,” says archaeologist Charistoula Giakoumaki.

Behind the high limestone walls and monumental gateways, there are pebble-mosaic floors in various patterns, both in the courtyards and the rooms; arched doorways with relief decorations bearing Byzantine, medieval and Ottoman elements; wide pointed arches; painted ceilings; and elevated wooden platforms (soufas) on which the bed was placed. The most impressive features are perhaps the carved doorways and the captain’s “towers,” special rooms located above the doorways, which locals say let captains watch the sea.

The Papaconstantis and Markoulit-

This is where the Apostle Paul is said to have landed, bringing Christianity.

Today, the beach here is among the most popular on the island.

St Paul’s Bay, below the acropolis of Lindos, is a stunning place for a swim.

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sa Houses now belong to the Greek State but are not open for visitors. Several others, however, can be rented during the summer, offering a unique accommodation experience. They are managed

by Sheila Markiou, who came to Lindos from the US in the 1970s and never left: “I fell in love with the place at first sight.

Even today, when I return from shopping in Rhodes Town and take the last turn on the road, I look towards Lindos and say ‘Ah! How beautiful it is...,’ even though I’ve lived here forty years.”

WALKING AROUND Cars are prohibited in the village.

So are motorcycles and scooters, although locals disregard this ban. Parking lots exist at both village entrances; from there, one continues on foot. The entire historic district of Lindos, which includes several neoclassical buildings, is a preserved area under the protection of the Greek Ministry of Culture. Locals lament that, even if they only want to patch a wall, they have to get a permit.

However, to get a good look at the architecture being preserved, it’s necessary to get off the main street, which is so thickly packed with eateries and tourist shops (each displaying so many items for sale) that they virtually hide every inch of the whitewashed walls.

Indeed, on every side there are boutiques, jewelry shops, souvenir stalls featuring “ancient Greek” sandals and vendors hawking fresh juice. Even the Church of the Panagia, built in the 14th century to replace an older church and expanded by the Knights (the bell tower bears their heraldic emblem), usually boasts a crowd. Further along the same street, the “Traditional House” is open to the public and operates as a folklore museum – with objects from daily life in the past centuries – and, of course, as a souvenir shop as well.

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Traditional architecture made optimal use of the limited space available in the village.

the main square. Outside the village, a grave known as the Tomb of Cleobulus overlooks the sea.

The main street leads to the path to the acropolis. The steep climb to the castle gateway takes about fifteen minutes. For those who’d rather not walk, donkeys are available, although the ride is as much a tourist attraction as it is a transportation option.

Along the ascending road, peddlers display woven tablecloths spread here and there on the ground. Visitors enter the castle through a gate built by the Knights of St. John (erected on top of a Byzantine fortification) and climb a lengthy staircase. Traces from every era reinforce just how strategic this place was through the ages: remnants

of the Hellenistic-era sanctuary share the acropolis with Early Christian chapels and Byzantine churches. The view in all directions is amazing. To the south is the beach of St. Paul, the second ancient natural port, which, from above, looks like a swimming pool. The Apostle Paul is said to have landed here, bringing Christianity. The beach is among the most popular on the island, and the forecourt of its small Byzantine church is a frequent wedding spot for foreigners. To the east, there are impressive cliffs; to the north, the beach of Megalos Yialos.

For most people, however, it is enough to sit on the steps of the Hellenistic stoa, in the shade of the columns. The breeze that usually blows here offers a welcome respite from the heat.

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BUZZING AROUND Beyond the medieval city and the beaches, a whole world of sights and experiences awaits.

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OLD-WORLD RETREAT camp in the area in order to use it. The therapy had to be followed for about 15 days: patients would drink the Kallithea water, often mixed with spring water from the island of Kos. They’d take walks around the gardens, enjoy their meals to live music, and when the water took effect, they’d hurry to one of the 82 toilets in the complex! Today, Kallithea Springs retains its cosmopolitan air, often hosting weddings, art exhibitions and other events; when night falls, many just come to drink at the bar, right next to the sea.

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8:00-20:00 • Admission: €3 • Tel. (+30) 2241.037.090 • www.kallitheasprings.gr

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Designed by architect Pietro Lombardi and built by the Italians in 1929, the luxurious facilities of Kallithea Springs, located just 9k from Rhodes Town, have been attracting crowds of visitors ever since. Now restored to their former glory, they make for an idyllic inter-war period setting, with their two rotundas (the bigger one boasting a 14m dome), flower-covered pergolas, a patio and even a fountain with a figure of Eros. The healing properties of the water (“tsilonero” as the locals used to call it), have been known since antiquity. The water had a laxative and diuretic effect, and people would

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HOUSE OF PLATES The stone-paved alleys in the village of Koskinou, just 7k from Rhodes Town, are pleasant for strolls. The houses here are among the few in Rhodes that retain the old-style architecture. You can see large limestone doorframes (pyliones) leading to flower-filled patios, and even the newer houses are painted in bright colors. Indoors, they have pebble floors, and usually a main room with a big arch and auxil-

iary spaces. The piatelotichos – a big wall covered with the typical Rhodian decorative plates – is impressive, and so is the roof made from wooden beams covered with patelia, a clay-rich soil that doesn’t absorb water. You can see all these in the Koskinou Traditional House, built in 1902. Of the residences on the island that are open to the public it’s one of the most impressive. • Tel. (+30) 2241.062.205

CREATIVE TRIO Rhodes used to have a great pottery tradition – centered around the village of Archangelos – and was best known for its decorative plates; all the more reason to stop by the Artistic Village, a multipurpose space where Nikos Simiakos, his wife Themi and their son Yannis create works of art made out of clay, iron, glass, wood and other materials.

Here you can watch the artists at work, both in the ceramic workshop and the painting atelier, and check out their small ceramic art exhibition space. You’ll also find paintings, sculptures, decorative objects and even jewelry for sale.

Afantou, 23rd km Rhodes-Lindos Road (+30) 2241.052.038 • www.artisticvillage.gr •

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Into the Wild

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Just outside Rhodes Town, a mere 3k along the road to Lindos, you’ll reach Rodini Park, one of the oldest landscaped parks in the world, thought to be the site of a school run by the great orator Aeschines. Lose yourself in this green oasis with its flowing water, wooden bridges and ancient plane trees with their enormous, gnarled trunks, and don’t be surprised if you encounter deer, peacocks or ducks. Rodini Park was also the site of a Hellenistic necropolis dating from the 3rd c.

BC; beautifully decorated tombs can still be seen – such as the impressive 28m-long Tomb of the Ptolemies. Opt for sneakers or hiking boots, as many spots are slippery and the dense vegetation can make a stroll here seem like a mini-adventure.

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COOPERATIVE INSPIRATION Damon Papakiriakou is a painter, sculptor and musician. After spending several years in Denmark, he returned to his homeland and created an idiosyncratic space called Art Park outside the village of Archipoli (33k from Rhodes Town). On an estate with olive trees, where all you can hear are the sounds of birds and cicadas, artists from all over the world come to work, drawing inspiration from nature; many leave behind one of their works as a gift. You might see them in action as you visit the park’s permanent sculpture and painting collection or browse through the temporary exhibits. Don’t skip the artworks adorning the garden: each one was created by two artists, one Greek and one Turkish, as a symbol of friendship between the two peoples.

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Tsampikos (for boys) or Tsampika (for girls) is one of the most common first names in Rhodes. While it’s extremely rare in the rest of Greece, children here are often baptized in honor of the locals’ beloved Virgin Mary, Panaghia Tsampika, a miracle worker in matters of fertility. The Monastery of Panaghia Tsampika, with its 14th-c. chapel, is located between the villages of Kolymbia and Archangelos, 30k from Rhodes Town, on the exact spot where once stood the ancient temple of Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, to whom women sacrificed small animals in the hope of an easy labor. To visit the monastery, you’ll have to climb 300 steps; childless women climb them barefoot as a declaration of faith. It’s worth the effort, because the view from up there is breathtaking. The icon of the Panaghia Tsampika, which is considered miraculous, can be found in the newer monastery by the road, surrounded by votive offerings, including wax figurines of infants.

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At the Bee Museum, just outside the village of Pastida (15k from Rhodes Town), you can see the inner workings of bee colonies thanks to transparent beehives.

Through a brief but interesting tour and interactive activities – including exciting games for children – you’ll also learn about Rhodes’ centuries-long apiculture tradition, as well as the importance of bees in general. The museum shares a roof with Melissokomiki Dodecanisou, a company that produces honey and honey-based products, collaborating with 70 beekeepers from Rhodes and the surrounding islands.

Don’t forget to visit the outdoor apicultural park and stop by the shop to buy honey!

• Open daily 8:30-17:00, Sun. 9:00-13:00 • Admission: €3 • Tel. (+30) 2241.048.200 • www.beemuseum.gr

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THE FILERIMOS PILGRIMAGE There are many reasons to make the 15k drive from Rhodes Town to Filerimos but in the end, what you’ll probably remember most vividly are the incessant mating cries of the male peacocks. In their company, you’ll climb the hill where the ancient city of Ialysos was situated and where today stands the 14th-c. Monastery of Kyra tou Filerimou (Lady of Filerimos). Around this restored Gothic church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, you’ll see the ruins of an ancient temple of Athena and of an early Christian church. At the base of the hill, take the Path of Golgothas: a stone-paved footpath with 14 sculpted Stations of the Cross, which will lead you to a massive cross with an unobstructed view over part of the island and, in the distance, the Turkish coast.

• Ialysos • Τel. (+30) 2241.092.202 • Οpen daily 8:00-20:00 • Admission: €6.

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THE UNSPOILT VILLAGE Most people probably haven’t seen High Season (1987), a film starring Jacqueline Bisset and Irene Papas and featuring the picturesque square of the village of Lachania, with its 1703 Ottoman fountain and its well-kept alleys. Anyone that travels the 70k here from Rhodes Town, though, is sure to be mesmerized.

By the early 1980s, Lachania had become almost dormant as most of its residents had emigrated to the US and Australia. It was foreigners who began to rent these empty houses and who gradually took up the task of restoring them. Nowadays, about 20 non-Greeks live in the village permanently and another 50

come and go throughout the entire year. “They rehabilitated Lachania, and it was for them that my grandfather opened the café in 1982,” says Michalis Christodoulou, a young man who runs the Platanos Taverna with his father and his brother. There, next to an enormous plane tree (as well as the 19th-century Aghios Georgios Church and a fountain dating from 1801), you can sit and try eggs with french fries, this simplest of dishes that, thanks to top-quality ingredients, has become a specialty here.

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Tel. (+30) 2244.046.027 www.lachaniaplatanostaverna.com

MASTER OF HERBS

Michalis Dramountanis is a child of nature. He grew up on his father’s farm and has chosen a similar path for himself: he owns three fields near Kremasti, amounting to a total of 1.5 hectares, which you can visit. Using entirely natural methods, he grows around 20 species of medicinal herbs, such as sage, marigolds and purple ruffles basil, which he uses as the main ingredients for the oils and wax-based ointments he prepares. “I plant trees that help each plant and I leave the surrounding vegetation intact, as it would happen in nature – she knows best,” he says. You can find his products in various shops, or you can call him.

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Tel. (+30) 694.924.1422

Midday escapade Located 26k from Rhodes Town, Epta Piges (Seven Springs) is the ideal place to find yourself at midday during the summer: the ravine, where water gushes from seven different spots, is crowded with plane trees creating cool shade.

Back in 1930, the Italians made sure to exploit the spring waters, installing an aqueduct to transport water to what was then San Benedetto (now Kolymbia), 4k to the east. Today, this is the main attraction of the area. The water is channeled into a narrow, high, 150m-long tunnel and is captured by a small dam, forming a lake. Feel free to take off your shoes and follow the same trajectory. The water is ankle-deep and the temperature in the dark tunnel is always cooler than outside. If you prefer to stay dry, there’s also a footpath.

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A MOUNTAIN HAVEN This thick pine forest, at an altitude of 800m on Mt Profitis Ilias, will make you forget that you’re on an island. The 9k route starts at Eleousa (36k from Rhodes Town) and passes the 15t-c., four-apse Chapel of Aghios Nikolaos Fountouklis, where it’s worth stopping to see what’s left of the Byzantine murals that were painted over by the Italians. Further ahead, you’ll reach a plateau with an unobstructed view of the coast. Here, you’ll find two buildings of particular interest: Elafos and Elafina (meaning “buck” and “doe,” respectively). They were named after the fallow deer that live in this forest. Built between 1929 and 1932 and styled after north Italian chalets, they were initially used to host officials who visited the island. Elafos has been restored and now operates as a hotel and café; it is popular with locals, especially in the winter. In the summer, you can sit and cool down in the square before either continuing on the dilapidated Villa de Vecchi, which was the country home of an Italian governor, or following the path to the village of Salakos. • Elafos Hotel • Tel. (+30) 2246.022.280 • www.elafoshotel.gr 130

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1. The exterior of the restored Elafos Hotel and Café.

2. The hotel retains much of its past splendor.

3. The Chapel of Aghios Nikolaos Fountouklis dates from the 15th century.

All-year hospitality with a personal touch, for business or leisure!

35-37, Kos Street, Rhodes Town, Dodecanese 85100 Greece Tel.: (+30) 22410 97000 | www.mediterranean.gr

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Italian GHOST TOWN The island’s Italian rulers established four farming villages, which they populated with settlers: San Benedetto (present-day Kolymbia), San Marco (now Aghios Pavlos), Peveragno (Kalamonas) and Campochiaro (Eleousa). Their goal was to control agricultural production and to impose their rule on the island’s countryside. Eleousa, located at the foot of Mt Profitis Ilias (36k from Rhodes Town), is an especially interesting sight.

Built in 1935, it was home to the northern Italian foresters who replanted and looked after the forests. Among the deserted buildings, you’ll see the Church of Aghios Charalambos, as well

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as an impressive building which used to be the village’s market house, featuring galleries, arched windows and rooms with big fireplaces. Next to it stands a building that first operated as a cinema, then became the Fascist Party headquarters (Casa del Fascio) and was finally converted into a sanatorium in 1947. The third building you’ll see was once a school; today, it houses the fire service. A few meters further ahead, you’ll also come across a huge tank that gathers water from the Kokkinisti spring. This is one of the few habitats of the gizani, a small freshwater fish endemic to Rhodes.

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Kallithea

Ladiko Afantou Kolymbia Tsampika Stegna Agathi

Kritinia

Fourni Kiotari Pefki Gennadi Lachania Plimmiri Aghios Georgios

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Prasonisi

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Anthony Quinn

North At the northernmost end of the island, Rhodes Town has a big beach stretching across the entire tip of the peninsula, with the Aquarium at its center. The western part tends to get more wind in the summer, while in the winter, it’s the turn of the eastern part, which reaches all the way to the building known as the Elli, from which this beach takes its name. A favorite with locals and visitors staying in the town, the beach is packed with umbrellas and sunbeds; interestingly the recliners all have their backs turned to the sea, as is also the case on other beaches on the island that are exposed to powerful winds. One of the landmarks here is the “Trampoline,” a concrete diving platform built by the Italians in the 1930s and renovated in 2007, a structure standing a few meters from the shore that rises from the water like a stairway to heaven. Zefyros is another city beach, located near the new marina on the town’s eastern flank. It’s very popular with locals and has many tavernas and cafés.

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West Largely rugged and wild, the western coast is notorious for its strong summer winds and powerful currents, which may put bathers off but which are a blessing for kite-surfers and windsurfers, such as those you’ll find on the beaches of Ixia and Ialysos.

Both of these spots have watersports centers that rent out equipment; on a typical summer day, the skies here are full of sails, while beach bars offer umbrellas, loungers and other creature comforts.

There are no proper beaches on the craggy southern end of the western coast, but there are plenty of small coves around Glyfada and the village of Kritinia, where you can dive off the rocks into the crystal-clear waters – keep an eye out for sea urchins. Further south, just below the village of Monolithos, you’ll find the quiet Aliki beach, a local secret. Last but not least, the pretty beach in Fourni is also quiet, at least by Rhodes’ standards, with coarse sand and pebbles, a few nice caves and a refreshment stand.

East Rhodes town to Kolymbia Rhodes’ eastern coast is its busiest and offers everything from sandy stretches to craggy bays and from family tavernas to beach bars. The beach at the historic hydrotherapy center in Kallithea is small, with rocks to dive off, a diving school and a bar. South of here, you’ll find a succession of small rocky coves that have no beaches to speak of but which are very popular among young people keen to show off their diving skills.

In addition to the famous Water Park (www.water-park.gr), ranked by TripAdvisor users among the best in the world, Faliraki Bay boasts three beaches: the pebbly one located in front of the big hotels, the central beach that is family-friendly (with fine sand and shallow waters) and the third, Mandomata, which is a nude beach.

Anthony Quinn is one of the island’s most popular beaches, named after the famous actor who fell in love with it while filming The Guns of Na-

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TIPS • If you’re traveling with children, Agathi and Tsampika are ideal, as they have sand and shallow waters.

Ialysos on the western coast near Rhodes Town and Prasonisi on the island’s southern end are the best windsurfing and kite-surfing beaches.

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Afantou and Stegna have some great tavernas where you can enjoy a meal after your swim.

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For people-watching and watersports fun, Faliraki and Kolymbia are your best bet.

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For absolute peace and calm, head to Mavros Kavos and Aghios Georgios on the southeastern coast.

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To end your day with an aperitif in idyllic surroundings, choose either Kallithea or St. Paul in Lindos. These beaches are also great for snorkeling as they have rocky seabeds.

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varone and even tried to buy it. It’s small and crowded, so it is unlikely you’ll find a free lounger at noon, and also not particularly kid-friendly, as there are rocks in the surf. Ladiko, the beach right beside it, is also small and rocky.

On the huge beach of Afantou, you’ll find undeveloped stretches and you’ll also see the big smooth pebbles that are used in making Rhodes’ famous mosaic floors. There are a few cafés and refreshment stands here that offer loungers and necessary supplies.

The first part of the beach is known as Traounou; there is a cave here that is a popular nighttime beach-party spot.

In nearby Kolymbia, there are two beaches, both very popular and offering watersports and tavernas.

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East Tsampika to Prasonisi Tsampika has gorgeous fine sand, a rarity on Rhodes, and is also equipped with umbrellas, sun loungers and refreshment stands. Hotels are not allowed to be built here, and because its waters are quite shallow, it’s perfect for families with children. At Stegna, you’ll find some very good tavernas and a family atmosphere. In Agathi, the waters are warm, the sand is relatively fine and there are a couple of refreshment stands, as well as a view of Feraklos Castle.

Lindos has three beaches and all are developed and have facilities. These are Megalos Yialos, Mikros Yialos, and St. Paul’s (the last lies beneath the Lindos acropolis and boasts a love-

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ly beachfront bar-restaurant). Slightly further south is Pef ki, a sandy beach that draws a more sophisticated crowd.

Kiotari and neighboring Gennadi are both huge beaches with small pebbles and coarse sand, lots of tavernas and cafés, watersports facilities and plenty of other activities. Next comes Lachania, known for its laidback beach bar that plays rock music and serves yummy cocktails. It’s a long beach with a smattering of holiday homes, but there’s also a large stretch without loungers, umbrellas or cafés, if you’re looking for a spot of solitude.

Plimmiri, a good way further south, is also relatively quiet and has a good taverna, and from here to Prasonisi there are two “secret” beaches few people know about – Aghios Georgios and Mavros Kavos. Don’t bother trying to reach them without an off-road vehicle, though, as there’s a grueling 5k dirt road leading down to them. If you can get there, it is worth making the trip because they are extremely quiet and have fine sand and shallow waters, as well as shade from a row of cedars. Make sure to take plenty of water, though.

South Located at Rhodes’ southernmost end, 100k from Rhodes Town, Prasonisi is one of the most famous windsurfing and kite-surfing beaches in Greece, if not the world. An islet during the high tides of winter, during the summer Prasonisi is connected to the mainland by a sandbar that creates two distinct bays with different weather conditions. One gets a lot of wind and waves while the other is usually calm with little or no chop. There are several surfing schools on the beach; if that’s not your thing, you can walk across to the islet instead and explore its late 19th-century lighthouse.

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KEEPING IT REAL Once an agricultural island acclaimed for its food products, Rhodes still boasts a rich culinary heritage that’s being kept alive by local producers and passionate cooks.

A composition with fish by Rhodes-based painter Manos Anastasiadis. Tempera paint on cardboard.

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BACK TO THE ROOTS Local products and time-honored recipes are helping to keep the traditional cooking of Rhodes alive.

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Pulses, vegetables, honey, bread, wine and cheese are among the high-quality products that Rhodes continues to produce.

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The recipe was for rabbit with meatballs. After lighting the wood oven, she started chopping up a piece of rabbit with two knives, mincing it finely. She set this meat aside and prepared the rest of the animal for baking. Once the rabbit in the oven was almost done, she took a spoonful of juice from the baking tray and added it to the chopped meat mixture before kneading it into meatballs.”

This tip for adding pure flavor is from the eyewitness testimony of Giorgos Troumouchis, executive chef at the Elysium Hotel in Kallithea and one of the co-creators of Makria Myrodia (Enduring Aroma), a book on Rhodes’ culinary heritage. It is not, however, an idea he had but rather something he saw done in the kitchen of a village house.

During the five years it took to complete the book, a small group of passionate cooks, photographers and friends collected and recorded more than 250 recipes unique to this island. They visited all of Rhodes’ 42 villages – some of them several times – identifying, by word of mouth, the best cooks in each location and then asking them to prepare the island’s traditional dishes.

The volume (available only in Greek) that came out of this project is a detailed record of the island’s food culture, delivered by what is perhaps the last generation to have learned their cooking skills entirely from their elders.

Myriad influences Varied landscapes and, of course, the Italian occupation, have shaped

1. Matsi is the traditional type of pasta produced on the island.

2. The Women’s Cooperative of Apollonas makes some of the best melekounia sweets on Rhodes.

3. Kapamas, a traditional dish of kid goat stuffed with rice and ground meat.

4. Ramona Pinni is the owner of “Gis Kattavias” (Earth of Kattavia), a small-scale company that makes traditional pasta from locally-grown wheat.

5. Loppia are a local variety of beans. They are particularly pale, small and tasty, in part because they survive on rainwater alone.

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the different cuisines across the island.

The south, for example, was a vast field of grain, while the island’s interior was a paradise for wild leafy legumes and dairy producers. Lindos has always been associated with seafood, and Kattavia is renowned for its pulses, particularly its white loppia beans. In the past, almost every family had its own vegetable garden, animal pen, wheat field, beehives and grape vines, and all of these can still be found on the island, though to a much lesser extent since the economic focus turned to tourism.

Rhodes’ traditional cuisine has an incredible variety of pastas, thanks to an abundance of cereals and grains.

Families always had enough not just to feed themselves, but also their horses and donkeys. Hay and a large ladleful of barley ensured that the animals were strong enough to turn the millstone all day long. Once the threshing and winnowing was done, the grain was taken to the nearest watermill for grinding so that each family had its own supply of flour. It was customary to bake bread even during the Easter fast, flavoring it with myrtle berries and mastic. This Lenten bread was made with a blended flour of wheat and rye or barley to which was added black sesame seeds, crushed up together with other spices. This same mixture was also used to make loaves that were baked, sliced and then baked again to create delicious rusks, often served crumbled as a porridge with milk for a hearty breakfast or dinner.

Depending on the shape and the method that would be used for cooking

6. Yiaprakia, the local dolmades made of vine leaves stuffed with rice and herbs, are the most popular meze.

7. For more flavor, Rhodians would add a garlic paste to fried fish.

8. Executive chef George Troumouchis (left) and chef Stamatis Misomikes (right) at Noble, a restaurant that serves creative modern cuisine based on traditional recipes of Rhodes.

9. Despina Hastali from the village of Apollonas talked to us about what the islanders used to eat.

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them, the different types of pasta had different names – makarounia, matsi and koulouria are just a few. Pasta could be boiled in meat broth or in plain water, it could be served with meat, or a simple butter sauce with grated cheese, or with crisp-fried onions, a topping known as “syvrasi.” A dish called “loukoumi me pilafi,” handmade pasta served with pork, cumin and myzithra cheese, is a regal dish that you’re unlikely to find in any taverna – on or off the island. All the pasta was, of course, made by hand, even the “kritharaki,” or orzo. There are a few cottage industries producing these local pastas today; they are sold at traditional food shops in town.

The island’s main cheese used to be myzithra, made from fresh goat’s and sheep’s milk and rennet from a goat’s stomach. This blend was boiled over a fire of mastic wood, which has a wonderful aroma and helped temper the strong odor of the milk. The cheese was then placed in small hand-woven baskets, which were in turn buried under piles of wheat in granaries so the cheese would keep its moisture. “Synoro” (border) was an amazing cheese from Lardos; it took its name from the fact that it was neither soft nor hard. Unfortunately, no one makes it anymore.

The Rhodians of yesteryear did not eat meat very often, but when they did it was an indulgent feast, with lots of sauces or with stuffings to accompany meats that were baked for hours to

Made with sesame seeds, honey, sweet spices and almonds and packed with healthy calories, traditional “melekounia” sweets are as good as any energy bar.

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achieve tender perfection. Goat, for example, would be cooked with potatoes, chickpeas or loppia beans; it was usually stuffed at Easter, but other times of the year it might be made into a stew with onions or simply roasted. Many of the island’s tavernas still serve dishes like “kapamas” (goat stuffed with rice, ground meat and cumin) or stewed kid goat with shallots.

There’s no shortage of seafood on the island; after all, nothing beats a big fresh fish on the grill. In the tavernas of Stegna, you should ask whether they have “rosettia,” a small light orange fish with a single big bone and very sweet flesh, usually served with “skordalia,” a strong garlic paste. Another dish widely prepared on Rhodes and similar to those found on other islands in the Dodecanese is the classic “dolmadakia,” vine leaves stuffed with rice, known here as yiaprakia. The dish you will find in every single taverna and kafeneio, however, is “pitaroudia.” Every part of the island has its own version of this crispy fritter, which may or may not contain meat and is made with either flour or powdered chickpeas. Basically, this is a flavor-packed hush puppy made with batter, cheese, eggs, onion, tomato and anything else the garden may yield.

These fritters were the perfect snack while toiling in the fields; they were filling and didn’t require a plate. “Pispili” is equally handy, though much simpler; it’s a chunk of bread stuffed with fresh herbs and vegetables.

It was necessity that gave rise to these recipes, and it was ingenuity, sparked by frugality, that helped evolve the island’s delicious cuisine. Some Rhodian dishes may have disappeared off the menus over the years, but even though local production cannot always cover the needs of the island’s big restaurants, you can still find plenty of local products in the food you’re eating: delicious pulses (like chickpeas and splitpeas), goat’s cheese, sourdough bread, handmade pasta, extra virgin olive oil, wine from Embonas, and honey scented with the sage and thyme that blankets the island’s hills – all the ingredients that will flavor your vacation.

an important treat In the melodic Rhodian dialect, fruit stones and seeds are known as “kounes,” which explains why the name “melekouni” has been given to a special wedding sweet made with sesame and honey. According to local tradition, the abundance of sesame seeds symbolizes fertility, while the honey represents the union between the couple. In the past, the ladies of a village would gather at the bride’s house a week before the nuptials to prepare the sweet. They would toast the sesame seeds, warm the honey and add all sorts of sweet spices and whole almonds. This gooey mess was then flattened out by hand or rolling pin to a thickness of about one centimeter and cut into bite-sized diamonds. This treat is still made this way, in a process that can take as long as five hours, by some housewives and small cooperatives - it’s served at most major celebrations and remains very popular.

We tried some that came from the workshops of the Apolloniatises Women’s Cooperative in Apollonas.

When it’s made correctly, melekouni is very fragrant, soft and chewy.

Get a few as a snack – packed with healthy calories, they’re as good as any energy bar.

Apolloniatises Women’s Cooperative: Apollonas • Tel. (+30) 2246.091.284 store: 68 Apostolou Pavlou, Analipsi, Rhodes Town • Tel. (+30) 2241.064.322

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DAYS OF WINE AND RHODES A storied past and a healthy present are good indicators for what lies ahead for the wines of this island.

B Y Y i a n n i s K a r a k a s i s , M a s t er o f W i n e

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trategically positioned between East and West, Rhodes was one of the first Greek islands to engage in the cultivation of grapes. A plethora of archaeological finds and historical proof attests to the importance of Rhodian amphorae in transporting wine from the island and tells us that these were distinguished from others by an engraving of a rose (“rodo” in Greek) or of Helios, the sun god. This was a form of branding, confirming that the wine was made from Rhodian grapes, and a precursor of the Appellation of Origin system that was established many centuries later in Europe.

Helped by its strong maritime presence, Rhodes was the biggest wine exporter in the region as far back as the 7th c.

BC. The first written reference we have for Rhodian wine comes from the great Attic orator Aeschines, a rival of Demosthenes, who was exiled to Rhodes in 330 BC. In a letter, he says that he stayed in a small house with a garden in the area of Kamiros and that his friends treated him to olive oil, honey and a wonderful wine that was far superior to that of Athens.

Rhodian wine went from strength to strength, thriving even after the Knights of St John occupied the island in the early 14th century. The 1522 conquest by the Ottoman army of Suleiman the Magnificent signaled the start of a very difficult period in grape cultivation

that only really ended when the Italians took control of the island in 1912.

Mt Attavyros, 1215m high, is at the center of Rhodes’ grape-growing heartland, a beautiful, Natura 2000-protected area, with verdant valleys, pine forests and a cypress forest in Embonas that is a designated natural monument. The best vines grow at an altitude of 650-700 meters. The vineyards are low-yield and are exposed to the Aegean’s strong northerly winds that moderate the high temperatures and provide a favorable climate for high-quality grapes.

The island’s main varieties are Athiri and Amorgiano, together with two Muscats, the petits grains (“small-berried”) and the Di Trani, a clone of Muscat introduced by the Italians from Puglia.

In the limestone-rich soil of Attavyros, there are Athiri vines over 70 years old, growing from their own roots rather than from American – resistant to phylloxera – rootstocks, as the spread of this pest in the Dodecanese stopped at Kos and never reached Rhodes.

The wines made from the old Athiri vines are like a completely different variety; they stand the passage of time well, acquiring a more concentrated and layered character. Five years in the bottle often transforms them into smoky wines with an impressive mineral presence.

7th c. BC oenochoe (wine jug) from Rhodes, decorated with figures of goats, fallow deer and ibex. Paris, Musée de Louvre.

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Panayiotis Alexandris at work in his vineyards.

As far as reds go, the dominant variety is Amorgiano, which is in fact a Mandilaria that bears this name here because locals believe it came from the island of Amorgos. Traditionally, it gives rustic wines with aggressive tannins, an intense color and high acidity that are tough to enjoy when they are still young. The abundance of this variety means that it is often blended with other grapes to smooth the edges of its rugged nature.

Rhodes has two Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) wines. PDO Rhodes refers to white wines (with a minimum of 70 percent Athiri blended with Malagousia and Assyrtiko), rosés and reds (70 percent Mandilaria minimum with Mavrothiriko), while it has also included sparkling wines since 2011. PDO Muscat of Rhodes is made from white Muscat Blanc and Muscat di Trani. Despite the abundance of native varieties, winemakers also cultivate international grapes,

foremost among them the Grenache Rouge, whose high yields has resulted in problems with quality.

Rhodes’ wine industry is intrinsically linked to the acronym CAIR (Compagnia Agricola Industriale Rodi), a winery established in 1928 by a group of Italian investors. This winery was responsible not only for keeping grape cultivation alive, but also for making Rhodes one of the few wine-producing areas in Greece whose vineyards expanded after World War II. The company came under the ownership of the Bodossakis Group after the Dodecanese islands became part of the Greek state in 1947. In 1957, it was sold to the Dodecanese Association of Agricultural Cooperatives.

CAIR became wildly popular as a sparkling wine producer, with its Velvet and Rosé Reserve labels constituting impressive examples of complex sparkling wines. Before Greece’s burgeoning middle class discovered imported champagnes,

© VANGELIS ZAVOS, CLAIRY MOUSTAFELLOU

The modern bottling facilities at CAIR.

WINES TO TRY CAIR Velvet 2005

CAIR Rodos 2400

A complex sparkling wine made using the traditional champenoise method, it is an interesting blend of Chardonnay and Athiri, delivering citrus and floral aromas in combination with brioche notes. Creamy, full-bodied and complex, it is an excellent food wine.

This is 100 percent Athiri, with an intense aroma of pear and banana. Rich in flavor despite its low alcohol content, highly refreshing and with a lingering aftertaste, it is proof of Athiri’s potential.

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Alexandris White 2015

Alexandris World Citizen 2013

An Athiri produced from old own-rooted vines, it brings a burst of flowers to the nose.

Tight and structured, it will evolve over the next three years to reveal a greater complexity of aromas and textures.

This is a fascinating blend of Mandilaria with the cosmopolitan Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc that matures in new oak barrels. The Mandilaria is derived from a small-berried clone that blends beautifully with the Bordeaux varieties to produce a condensed and powerful wine with great ageing potential. It is best paired with flavorful meat-based dishes.

Yiannis Kounakis at the traditional maturation cellar of Kounakis Winery.

every bottle of CAIR was a “cause for celebration” according to an old ad, and annual sales reached 1.5 million bottles. For several years now, the company has been focusing on quality still wines as well, such as the Rodos 2400, launched in 1992 to celebrate 2,400 years since the founding of Rhodes Town.

Rhodes’ other big producer is Emery, founded in 1923 and named after Emery d’ Amboise, the 41st Grand Master of the Knights of St John, who served in that position from 1503 to 1512. The company is now run by the third generation of the Triantafylloy family. It’s been producing wine since the mid1960s and built its current winery – one of the biggest in Greece – in 1974 in the village of Embonas, at an altitude of 700 meters. The vineyards, cultivated on the northwesterly slopes of Mt Attavyros, are renowned for the quality of their Athiri and Amorgiano grapes.

There are, in addition, a few small artisanal wineries in Rhodes, such as the Alexandris Family Winery, which has been around since 1968 and is producing some very interesting wines under the direction of third-generation winemaker Panayiotis Alexandris, a graduate of Montpellier’s famed university. The winery has around four hectares of vines producing just 20,000 bottles a year, with each label representing about 2,000 bottles. Aged examples of own-rooted Athiri from an altitude of 700 meters that matures for 11 months on the lees are more powerful than what we expect from this variety, with an intense smokiness and a long aftertaste. There are other interesting small wineries as well, including Kounakis and Tatakis.

The island’s lengthy history in winemaking is well known and its potential for producing high-quality wines is great.

Rhodes has yet not achieved the same success as other Greek islands like Santorini, Paros or Cephalonia; nonetheless, it is an outstanding wine tourism destination offering a plethora of exciting wines, made from both indigenous and international varieties.

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TRIED AND TRUE Rhodes has no shortage of dining options. Our shortlist was compiled on the merits of quality, originality and the local element, whether in terms of recipes or ingredients.

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PRICE INDEX (P er

person, excl. wine) € less than €20; €€ less than €50; €€€ over €50

Blue Fin

MARCO POLO mansion

PARAGA

AVANTIS

Avantis made its debut in 1983 as a classic beach-side taverna. With a loyal clientele, it has evolved into a modern restaurant specializing in charcoal-grilled fish – the grill master is not just an artist in his craft, but also a very colorful character – and other seafood. Its lobster and other seafood pastas are exceptional. €€ • Afantou Beach • Τel. (+30) 2241.051.280

ARTEMIDA

This is a solid example of the classic Greek taverna, where the entire family is involved in day-to-day operations. A clean and tidy establishment, both up front and in the kitchen, it serves house-

hold staples like casseroles that have been cooked in a wood-fired oven for 10-13 hours, stuffed vine leaves, the traditional local pitaroudia (chickpea fritters) and roast suckling pig. The mother is always responsible for the dessert – pancakes served with a sweet orange preserve. € • Psinthos • Τel. (+30) 2241.050.003

Blue Fin

Located beside the sea, the fine-dining restaurant of the Aquagrand Hotel is a great place for dinner with a view.

It serves modern international cuisine with Greek notes, from the mains to the desserts. Start with the fish broth with handmade seafood ravioli, followed by

a new version of the classic Greek “kleftiko” lamb, where the meat is tenderized in a sous vide for hours instead of the traditional method of burying it in embers. For dessert, try the traditional ravani syrupy cake with a Greek coffee mousse and Turkish delight. You’ll find plenty of Greek and international wines on the list, though we recommend something local so you can explore the island’s distinctive terrior. €€€ • Aquagrand Resort, Lardos-Lindos Regional Road • Τel. (+30) 2244.049.100

BROCCOLINO

The first things you’ll notice when you enter this traditional house, where Cristina and Elia – a cool couple from

Italy – have been cooking up a storm for the past 14 years, are its shady courtyard, its colorful, exotic mural and the mosaic-inlaid tables. All the food – hailing mostly from the Emilia-Romagna region – is full of flavor and includes fresh pasta, salads with local ingredients and more sophisticated recipes like the shrimp tartare with white-fleshed peaches. On the list of must-tries is the truffle-and-provolone gnocchi served with fresh tomato, creamy mozzarella and basil.

Desserts include a very memorable tiramisu. Broccolino serves only Italian wines. €€ • Lindos • Τel. (+30) 2244.031.688

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If you’re in the Afantou area and yearning for fresh fish, this is an excellent option.

The owner’s husband is a fisherman who provides the fresh catch that is served in this simple family taverna.

Fresh salad, boiled wild greens and grilled octopus complete the no-frills menu.

Give the house wine a miss and order bottled ouzo, beer or a soft drink instead. €€ • Afantou Beach • Τel. (+30) 2241.053.077

KOZAS

Not an inch of wall has been left uncovered in this restaurant, which is abundantly adorned with shells, clay cooking pots, garlands and shelves stuffed with all sorts of pantry staples. The owner, Dimitris Kozas, is one 152

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of those hyper-creative types, forever rushing in and out of the kitchen, seating guests, serving the complimentary appetizer of sourdough bread with local olive oil and sea salt, and recommending wines. Despite the crush that tends to prevail here, the staff’s good mood is contagious. The fish stew made with the daily catch and seafood is inspired, as are the linguini with sea urchin, the lentil risotto with crispy fried onions, the baby octopus and the fresh shellfish. This is not the place for a quiet meal, but it is one of the island’s best fish restaurants. €€ • Stegna • Τel. (+30)

2244.022.632

LOUIS

Louis’ kafeneio is the first café you’ll see in the main square of Kattavia village, with tables arranged in the shade of a huge tree. It’s the perfect place for lunch.

The cuisine here is no-frills: Greek salad, omelet, sausages, a couple of dishes of the day and roasts, and a few grilled meats. At night, it’s packed with surfers returning from Prasonisi. € • Kattavia • Τel. (+30) 6956.138.169

MARCO POLO MANSION

In 2001, Efi and Spyros, a well-traveled local couple with impeccable taste, opened a small bed-andbreakfast in a Venetian building in the Old Town and initially cooked only for guests.

They took the restaurant up a notch, however, in 2008 and now it’s hard to find a table in the gorgeous courtyard that serves as the dining area.

The kitchen and wait staff are perfectly synchronized so the service is swift. The menu is inspired by the food of Tuscany, Andalusia and southern France, with lots of dishes of the day. Try the seafood salad of octopus, shrimp and parmesan, the baked bream with a bouillabaisse sauce and vegetables, or the beautifully prepared tagliata. Don’t go without a dessert of strawberry or peach tiramisu, saffron panna cotta or lemon semifreddo. The liqueurs are all homemade. €€ • 40-42 Aghiou Fanouriou, Old Town • Tel. (+30) 2241.025.562

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AVANTIS

We look forward to meeting you!

PERIGIALI

MAVRIKOS Listed in every guide about the island, lauded by the New York Times and renowned for all the celebrities that have dined here, Mavrikos is as famous as the acropolis of Lindos. The family has been in the restaurant business since 1912, when the grandfather ran a bistro in Marseille.

Today the cuisine, which pays homage to the local food heritage while also including modern elements, is focused on fish. Try the bulgur with minced octopus and nutmeg or the calamari sautéed with beetroots and saffron. Opt for one of the reasonably priced wines from local producers. €€ • Lindos • Τel. (+30) 2244.031.232

Melenos Lindos Exclusive Suites One of the top accommodation options in Lindos boasts an equally highquality restaurant, located on a rooftop overlooking meandering cobbled streets and gardens blooming with bougainvillea and fragrant herbs. With a view of the acropolis, the design motif here is ethnic Moroccan – with bright colors, candlelight and streams of cloth – while the food is both homey and creative.

Try, for example, the lamb cutlets with an artichoke puree and a lemon sauce.

We recommend booking a table in the first sitting so as to enjoy the sunset and the view of the acropolis. €€€ • Lindos • Tel. (+30) 2244.032.222

Since we first opened in 1994, Terpsis Restaurant in Pefkos (also known as Pefki) on Rhodes has acquired an excellent reputation for fine Greek cuisine.

We pay attention to those finer points which make all the difference: sourcing the best possible fresh ingredients; making your surroundings as attractive and comfortable as possible; and choosing tableware specifically for each individual dish. Dining under the stars in our beautiful garden, you’ll enjoy the best of our country’s produce, all served to the soft tones of Greek music.

With so much to offer, Terpsis Restaurant is just a cut above the rest. As well as serving delicious food, it is important to us as Greek hosts that our guests receive a warm welcome and friendly personal service. As the proud owner of this establishment, I am always at my restaurant in the evenings, and several other members of my family are also here to make you feel at home.

Many of our customers become friends, not just regular patrons, returning to spend evenings with us and to enjoy our hospitality night after night, year after year.

We are open from May through October and our kitchen produces delicious dishes from 17:00 to 23:00 every day. − Vangelis Ioannides, Owner

Terpsis Restaurant - Lindos 85107, Rhodes • www.terpsis.com • Tel: (+30) 2244.048.140 • Email: info@terpsis.com

• Pefkos

NOBLE

NOBLE

Even though its stands 11 stories above sea level, it is the food rather than the view that sets Noble apart, as it serves creative and modern versions of local rustic recipes. Executive chef George Troumouchis studied old cookbooks to create a menu of previously “lost” dishes, which are executed by the talented chef Stamatis Misomikes. The two experts recommend the pitaroudia (chickpea fritters), the sundried octopus, the squid with rice and traditional dishes that have been deconstructed or subjected to molecular techniques, cooked sous vide, using smoke or liquid nitrogen. They also recommend the well-priced “passport menu,” with dishes inspired by different Aegean islands, such as the spaghetti with sea urchin from Kalymnos, scallops with cured louza pork from Mykonos, and the Symi shrimp. The wine list 154

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is arranged by geographical provenance, with selections from Greece and other parts of the world. Live piano music accompanies every meal. €€€ • Elysium Resort and Spa, Kallithea • Τel. (+30) 2241.045.700

PARAGA

This is one of the few places on the island where you can try the local cuisine in its purest form. The owner, Yiannis Efthymiou, is a stickler for tradition: the restaurant has four wood-fired ovens, all the food is served in earthenware dishes and the beverages are from local wineries or the local VAP soft-drinks company. The cheeses are from Rhodes and the bread is made traditionally and served with shoots of fresh myrtle and mastic.

Specialties include the nanny goat stew, a heavy yet delicious dish, and the kapamas, baked goat or lamb stuffed with rice. Dessert consists of

Terpsis

yoghurt with fruit preserve: watermelon, damson or apricot. € • Apollonas • Τel. (+30) 2246.091.247

PERIGIALI

This taverna is located right at the end of Stegna Beach, at a spot used by fishermen to anchor their caiques. The owners are low-key folk who opened this place to cook for their friends rather than to make a fortune. Under the shade of the fruit trees, they serve homemade bread, beans with wild greens and fried onions, squid cooked in its own ink and a specialty called rouzetia (pearly razorfish), small fish that hide in the sand. These are fried and served either plain or with a garlic sauce. It is a meze you will only find in Rhodes. € • Stegna • Τel. (+30) 2244.023.444

PIZANIAS, THE SEA STAR

Considered by locals to be the best fish taverna in the Old Town, Pizanias is named after the grandfather who opened it in 1970. Now it is in the hands of his grandson, Yiannis. Make sure to try the small fried fish or the grilled octopus – both delicious. You can also preorder the excellent fish stew when you make your reservation. The wine list has 50 options, mostly Greek whites with a few international labels. Dessert is yoghurt with sweet fruit preserve. €€ • 24 Sofokleous, • Tel. (+30) 2241.022.117

SYMI

This is a minuscule traditional kafeneio in the New Market of Rhodes, with tables on the sidewalk. The smiling owner, Irini, is the granddaughter of the original proprietor and serves omelets, eggs and yoghurt with honey

Kozas

for breakfast; the lunch menu includes by ouzo and meze such as small fried fish, fried potatoes, fava split-pea dip and octopus marinated in vinegar. € • New Market, Rhodes • Τel. (+30) 2241.022.881

TERPSIS

Located for the past 23 years on the main road of Pefki overlooking the sea, Terpsis is known for its excellent service. It has a lovely green courtyard with a fountain and serves modern Mediterranean cuisine influenced by international trends. Try the batter-fried cod with a parsley sauce, the red porgy (or other white-fleshed fish) in a sauce of tropical fruits. There are 23 selections on the wine list, but the bottled house wine is recommended. €€ • Pefki • Τel. (+30) 2244.048.140

Stani Ice cream This is arguably the best ice cream you’ll have on the island. It’s a thick, smooth cream, made using the same recipe for decades. The man behind Stani, Ibrahim Sarri Hasan, was a dairy farmer who started trading in milk some time after World War II. We don’t know when he invented his ice cream recipe, but the first store opened in 1974. There are four today, which Ibrahim’s grandchildren manage (there are also three franchise stores on Rhodes and one on Symi). The ice cream comes in more than 30 flavors, with cream being the most popular.

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• 28 Aghias Anastasias Tel. (+30) 2241.030.991

Afantou Beach, Rhodes Tel. (+30) 2241.051.280 • www.avantisfishrestaurant.gr • •

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ELECTRA PALACE RHODES Reach out and touch the sea at the beachfront Electra Palace Rhodes. Only a ten-minute drive from the cosmopolitan city center and the UNESCO-listed Old Town, Electra Palace Rhodes is the perfect backdrop for a stylish retreat, inviting guests to explore authentic Greek hospitality served with gentle sophistication and originality. Located literally on the water’s edge, it boasts magnificent sea views and colorful sunsets and offers an abundance of amenities: elegantly appointed rooms and family suites, restaurants showcasing different cuisines, a collection of signature bars, a private beach with an chic wooden sundeck, a holistic spa, a professionally run crèche and a children’s club.

Trianta Beach, Tel. (+30) 2241.092.521, www.electrahotels.gr

AMADA COLOSSOS As a guest at Amada Colossos, you’ll never run out of dining options with the wide variety of restaurants on offer. Start your day with a hearty buffet breakfast at one of the two main restaurants, but save room for a delicious lunch of Asian, Italian or Greek food to be enjoyed at one of three chic venues. In the evening, you can opt for a seafood experience at the resort’s romantic seaside restaurant, serving freshly caught fish from the Aegean Sea. www.amadacolossosresort.com/en/

BOUTIQUE 5 HOTEL & SPA With Kiotari Beach as a backdrop, dinner at the Impressions Restaurant sure is a show-stopper. Add some live music, attentive service, a fine wine list and high-caliber gastronomy, and you’ve got a unique dining experience. The skilled chef gives a modern twist to Greek and Mediterranean dishes that will bring you back again and again. If you’d rather have an intimate romantic dinner, Impressions’ haute cuisine can also be enjoyed in the privacy of your own room. www.boutique5.gr

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PRINCESS ANDRIANA The Moonlight à la carte restaurant and VIP lounge is a superb combination of design, service and gastronomy in an atmosphere oozing elegance. Using the finest ingredients, the chef prepares Mediterranean dishes with a personal twist and original touches, from the small and imaginative starters to the delightful desserts. To complement your dining experience, there is a carefully selected wine list with both local and international options for you to choose from. www.princessandriana.com

ELAKATI In this luxury boutique hotel, every detail counts. Its restaurant Elakati Kitchen Bar is tastefully designed with an emphasis on hospitality. Dishes vary according to availability of produce and, even though they are inspired by traditional recipes, follow modern gastronomic trends. Choose one of the two degustation menus or the à la carte menu and enjoy your meal with one of the signature cocktails on offer. www.elakati.com

HOTEL MEDITERRANEAN Only a few meters from the shore, Thalassa Restaurant stands out for its bold Mediterranean flavors served in a pleasingly decorated setting. For lunch, you can choose from the à la carte menu and for dinner you can indulge in the rich buffet or opt for the table d’hôte. Classic Greek dishes and Mediterranean delicacies, accompanied by wines from Greek vineyards, are combined in this contemporary menu. www.mediterranean.gr

RODOS PARK SUITES AND SPA At the Galaxy Roof Lounge Bar, glamour, cool lounge music and magical views combine to provide you with an ideal fine- dining experience. If you’re a fan of Mediterranean dishes, head to the restaurant Il Parco, next to the garden and the pool or, alternatively, to La Brasserie which serves a delectable fusion of Mediterranean and international cuisine. At the end of the day, relax with a classic cocktail or a fine spirit at the stylish L’ Agence Lobby Bar. www.rodospark.gr G R E E C E IS

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Lindos blue Dining at the elegant restaurant Five Senses means panoramic sea views and a canopy of twinkling stars. The executive chef’s fresh take on modern cuisine gives new meaning to the word “ambrosia,” through fixed and à la carte menus inspired by Greece and hidden gastronomic treasures from around the world. Try the fakorizo (a dish made with lentils and rice), kakavia (a fish soup), yiaprakia (stuffed vine leaves) and other modern renditions of local dishes, as well as several popular dishes from around the world. For your “nectar,” take your pick from an extensive wine list that includes sparkling, dry and dessert wines. www.lindosblu.gr

RODOS PALACE At an elegant setting under the starry sky, 12 Nissia (12 islands) is ideal for a fine dining experience. The executive chef and his team get their inspiration from local recipes from 12 different islands and execute them with a modern touch, using premium ingredients from selected suppliers. The restaurant’s attentive staff are eager to spoil you and will gladly suggest the best among flavorful dishes and a wine list comprised of excellent selections. www.rodos-palace.gr

SHERATON HOTEL At Sheraton’s signature restaurant L’Onda the executive chef showcases Italian cuisine with a contemporary twist, using only the freshest ingredients predominantly sourced from artisan producers.

Try authentic Italian dishes such as ravioli, vitello tonnato, grilled octopus and freshly baked pizza and pair them with wine from a carefully curated list. For Greek cuisine, opt for the Thèa Restaurant, boasting unrivaled views over the Aegean Sea. Its menu includes favorites like Greek salad, grilled feta cheese in a herb crust, saganaki prawns, chicken souvlaki on a lemongrass skewer, foll0wed by a delicious galaktompoureko (milk custard pie) dessert. www. sheratonrhodesresort.gr 158

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KOUNAKIS JEWELS AND WATCHES Founded in 1954 by Fotis Manousakis, one of the first jewelers in what was then a fledgling market in the Old Town, the Kounakis brand is now in the hands of the family’s third generation, which is committed to continuing and enriching this family tradition. Currently operating three luxurious boutiques in the Old Town, as well as a fourth at the Lindos Blu Luxury Hotel & Suites, Kounakis offers its international clientele not only exquisite handmade jewelry inspired by Rhodes, but also valuable watches from top international brands, including Cartier, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Breitling, Officine Panerai and TAG Heuer. www.kounakis.gr

COCO-MAT Sleep on nature worldwide COCO-MAT was founded 28 years ago with the goal of creating the best natural sleep products, constructed solely through sustainable methods because our respect for our planet is as great as our respect for our clients. Since 2012, COCO-MAT has been actively supporting the Pillow Positive Project by helping to give strength back to women who have undergone breast cancer surgery. To date, COCO-MAT has given away more than 6,000 heart-shaped pillows in regions where the brand has a presence. Currently, COCO-MAT has 108 stores and franchises located in 17 countries. There are stores in major cities including New York, Paris, Rome, Madrid, Berlin, Beijing, Amsterdam, Seoul, Milan, Barcelona, Munich, Athens and Frankfurt. You can read more about the brand and the Pillow Positive Project at www.coco-mat.com

Roubeti Boutique Featuring some of the biggest brands in men’s fashion such as Armani and Armani Jeans, Burberry, Etro, ZZegna, Hugo Boss and Moncler, Roubeti Uomo has been a one-stop shop for stylish clothes, shoes and accessories since it first opened in the center of Rhodes Town in 1991. Quality and elegance are the words that best describe the Roubeti Uomo shopping experience, with both classic styles and all current fashion trends represented in the boutique’s collections. 6 Cyprus Square, Tel. (+30) 2241.075.712, www.roubetiuomo.gr

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