Qualla: Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes https://qualla.com/palace-of-the-grand-master-of-the-knights-of-rhodes 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/palace-of-the-grand-master-of-the-knights-of-rhodes-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes https://qualla.com/palace-of-the-grand-master-of-the-knights-of-rhodes Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes: Introduction https://qualla.com/palace-of-the-grand-master-of-the-knights-of-rhodes/ Photo credit User:Piotrus, CC BY-SA 3.0. On a Sunday morning in 1856, lightning struck the bell tower of the Church of Saint John of the Collachium in the medieval city of Rhodes, traveled down to the gunpowder magazine in the cellars, and detonated three centuries of stored Ottoman munitions. The church vanished. So did most of the Palace of the Grand Master next door. So did the people unfortunate enough to be in the streets between them. The blast was Rhodes' second great architectural disaster: the first was the earthquake of 1481, which had wrecked the same complex 375 years earlier. The Knights Hospitaller had built and rebuilt this fortress more times than any other structure on the island, and the building you visit today is mostly an Italian fascist reconstruction of what they last left behind.

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Image: User:Piotrus | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/k/p/palace-of-the-grand-master-of-the-knights-of-rhodes-wp/swkp-palace-of-the-grand-master-of-the-knights-of-rhode-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes: The Colossus Question https://qualla.com/palace-of-the-grand-master-of-the-knights-of-rhodes/ Photo credit Norbert Nagel, Mörfelden-Walldorf, Germany, CC BY-SA 3.0. Recent archaeological work has supported what locals had long suspected: the palace stands directly on the foundations of an ancient temple to Helios, the sun god, which is also the most plausible site for the Colossus of Rhodes. The 33-meter bronze statue, one of the Seven Wonde...

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Image: Norbert Nagel, Mörfelden-Walldorf, Germany | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/k/p/palace-of-the-grand-master-of-the-knights-of-rhodes-wp/swkp-palace-of-the-grand-master-of-the-knights-of-rhode-the-colossus-question.mp3 0:06 2 full Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes: The Knights Arrive https://qualla.com/palace-of-the-grand-master-of-the-knights-of-rhodes/ Photo credit Hagai Agmon-Snir حچاي اچمون-سنير חגי אגמון-שניר, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Knights Hospitaller had been driven from the Holy Land in 1291 with the fall of Acre, and they spent eighteen years on Cyprus before deciding they needed an island of their own. Rhodes belonged nominally to the Byzantine Empire but was poorly defended. The Knights took it in ...

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Image: Hagai Agmon-Snir حچاي اچمون-سنير חגי אגמון-שניר | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/k/p/palace-of-the-grand-master-of-the-knights-of-rhodes-wp/swkp-palace-of-the-grand-master-of-the-knights-of-rhode-the-knights-arrive.mp3 0:06 3 full Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes: Three Hundred Years as a Fortress https://qualla.com/palace-of-the-grand-master-of-the-knights-of-rhodes/ Photo credit User:Piotrus, CC BY-SA 3.0. Under Ottoman rule from 1522 onward, the palace served as a command center and a powder magazine, an unusual combination that would prove costly. The medieval city around it remained largely unchanged, the Street of the Knights still lined with the inns each national tongue of th...

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Image: User:Piotrus | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/k/p/palace-of-the-grand-master-of-the-knights-of-rhodes-wp/swkp-palace-of-the-grand-master-of-the-knights-of-rhode-three-hundred-years-as-a-fortress.mp3 0:06 4 full Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes: Mussolini's Holiday Home https://qualla.com/palace-of-the-grand-master-of-the-knights-of-rhodes/ Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Italy seized the Dodecanese from the Ottomans in 1912 during the Italo-Turkish War and held them through World War I and into the Fascist period. From 1937 to 1940, the architect Vittorio Mesturino oversaw the reconstruction of the palace as a holiday residence, first for King Vi...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/k/p/palace-of-the-grand-master-of-the-knights-of-rhodes-wp/swkp-palace-of-the-grand-master-of-the-knights-of-rhode-mussolinis-holiday-home.mp3 0:06 5 full Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes: Greek Again https://qualla.com/palace-of-the-grand-master-of-the-knights-of-rhodes/ Photo credit Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0. After Italy's defeat in World War II, the Treaty of Peace with Italy on 10 February 1947 transferred the Dodecanese to Greece, and the formal handover took place in 1948. Rhodes had not been Greek territory in any modern sense for over six hundred years. The palace became a museu...

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Image: Bernard Gagnon | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/k/p/palace-of-the-grand-master-of-the-knights-of-rhodes-wp/swkp-palace-of-the-grand-master-of-the-knights-of-rhode-greek-again.mp3 0:06 6 full