Qualla: Church of St John of the Collachium https://qualla.com/church-of-st-john-of-the-collachium en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:30 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/k/p/church-of-st-john-of-the-collachium-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Church of St John of the Collachium https://qualla.com/church-of-st-john-of-the-collachium Church of St John of the Collachium: Introduction https://qualla.com/church-of-st-john-of-the-collachium/ Photo credit User:Piotrus, CC BY-SA 3.0. On the night of November 6, 1856, lightning struck the bell tower of an old church in the medieval quarter of Rhodes. The cellars beneath the tower held a stockpile of Ottoman gunpowder. The flash, the ignition, and the detonation came so close together that there was no time to evacuate. At least two hundred people died, the adjacent Palace of the Grand Master was damaged, and the Church of St John of the Collachium, which had stood for more than five centuries, was simply gone. A school was eventually built on top of the rubble, and only a few foundation stones along the northern edge still mark where one of the most important Gothic buildings in the Eastern Mediterranean once stood.

Read more: Church of St John of the Collachium on Qualla

Image: User:Piotrus | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/k/p/church-of-st-john-of-the-collachium-wp/swkp-church-of-st-john-of-the-collachium-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Church of St John of the Collachium: The Knights' House of Saints https://qualla.com/church-of-st-john-of-the-collachium/ Photo credit Wknight94 talk, CC BY-SA 3.0. When the Knights Hospitaller seized the city of Rhodes in 1310, they needed a church worthy of an order that traced its founding to the care of pilgrims in Jerusalem. They chose a site in the collachium, the walled inner quarter where the brothers lived apart from the local Greek...

Read more: Church of St John of the Collachium on Qualla

Image: Wknight94 talk | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/k/p/church-of-st-john-of-the-collachium-wp/swkp-church-of-st-john-of-the-collachium-the-knights-house-of-saints.mp3 0:06 2 full Church of St John of the Collachium: Spolia and Salt Light https://qualla.com/church-of-st-john-of-the-collachium/ Photo credit Kritzolina, CC BY-SA 4.0. Architecturally, the church was a three-aisled Gothic basilica, about 48 meters long and 15 wide, with a transept covered in four ribbed vaults and a coffered barrel vault running the length of the nave. The aisles were separated from the nave by pointed arcades supported on eigh...

Read more: Church of St John of the Collachium on Qualla

Image: Kritzolina | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/k/p/church-of-st-john-of-the-collachium-wp/swkp-church-of-st-john-of-the-collachium-spolia-and-salt-light.mp3 0:06 3 full Church of St John of the Collachium: A Cabinet of Holy Bones https://qualla.com/church-of-st-john-of-the-collachium/ Photo credit Nikater, CC BY-SA 3.0. By the late fourteenth century, with revenues squeezed by the Papal Schism, the Hospitallers turned their relic collection into an income stream. Pilgrims sailing to the Holy Land stopped at Rhodes specifically to see what the knights had gathered, and the inventory was extraordi...

Read more: Church of St John of the Collachium on Qualla

Image: Nikater | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/k/p/church-of-st-john-of-the-collachium-wp/swkp-church-of-st-john-of-the-collachium-a-cabinet-of-holy-bones.mp3 0:06 4 full Church of St John of the Collachium: Mosque, Earthquake, Lightning https://qualla.com/church-of-st-john-of-the-collachium/ Photo credit Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0. When Suleiman the Magnificent's forces took Rhodes in 1522, the church became the city's main mosque. A mihrab niche was added, the bell tower was rebuilt as a minaret, and non-Muslims were forbidden to enter. The building survived in this second life for more than three centurie...

Read more: Church of St John of the Collachium on Qualla

Image: Bernard Gagnon | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/k/p/church-of-st-john-of-the-collachium-wp/swkp-church-of-st-john-of-the-collachium-mosque-earthquake-lightning.mp3 0:06 5 full