- NOW TICKETS WITH SELF GUIDED AUDIO GUIDE
Behind the majestic walls of Rhodes, where visitors admire Gothic gates, cobbled streets, and the towering Palace of the Grand Master, lies a lesser-known story etched in silence. It is the story of those who did not wear armor or carry swords, but who bore the weight of the city on their backs—its builders, its laborers, its forgotten residents.
When the Knights of Saint John seized control of the island in 1309, they brought with them order, strength, and vision—but also hierarchy, exclusion, and exploitation. For more than two hundred years, the Rhodians under the Knights lived not as citizens of a shared state, but as subjects under a military regime.
They endured forced labor, heavy taxes, cultural marginalization, and religious suppression—all in service of a medieval order that saw them as tools rather than equals. Beneath the architectural grandeur, beneath the Latin rituals and chivalric glory, was a society divided by language, faith, and power.
The city’s fame may have been built by the Knights—but its foundations were laid, stone by stone, by the hands of ordinary Rhodians.
When the Knights of Saint John took over Rhodes in 1309, they didn’t just inherit a strategic island—they inherited 25,000 people.
These Rhodians, mostly Greek Orthodox, became the invisible force behind the island’s transformation. Unlike the noble tales of chivalry, the Rhodians under the Knights were not warriors, but workers—obliged to build, carry, and row without rest.
The great walls of Rhodes, its towers and bastions, were not conjured by architects alone. They were raised through relentless labor by local hands, summoned through the harsh system of angareia—compulsory labor services demanded by the rulers.
Day after day, men carried stone, dug moats, and raised battlements not for their own defense, but for the glory of their overlords.
The lives of Rhodians under the Knights revolved around three exhausting duties. First was the cutting of timber—Rhodes’s forests were relentlessly harvested. Locals felled trees, shaped beams, and hauled lumber from the inland mountains to the coast, often without reward.
Second came the fortifications. Entire communities were mobilized to strengthen the medieval city walls and fortify outlying defenses. Every expansion of the city’s might meant more sweat and toil for its inhabitants. These mass labor campaigns consumed years of people’s lives.
Third was the maritime burden. The Knights operated a fleet that required thousands of rowers. Rhodians were drafted—often forcibly—into naval service. They powered warships and cargo vessels alike, enduring rough seas and brutal discipline.
The city of Rhodes itself mirrored the island’s social divide. The Latin-speaking Catholic Knights occupied the northern quarter—the Collachium—with its grand palaces, hospitals, and churches. The Greek Orthodox Rhodians lived in the Burgus, the lower town, a maze of workshops, markets, and modest homes.
Religious discrimination was institutionalized. Catholicism was favored in law, politics, and society. Orthodox churches operated in the shadows, and the native tongue was excluded from administration. The Rhodians under the Knights faced not just physical burdens, but cultural erasure.
Yet, despite the oppression, the Rhodians endured. They formed tight-knit communities, kept their language and faith alive, and passed down stories of hardship and resilience. Their silent contribution laid the foundation for one of the best-preserved medieval cities in Europe.
Behind every stone in Rhodes’s majestic walls lies the echo of a hammer, a cry of fatigue, a voice of protest. The Rhodians under the Knights paid dearly for the city’s glory—with their bodies, their culture, and their rights.
While tourists marvel at the architecture, few pause to consider who built it—and at what cost. Recognizing this legacy restores dignity to the forgotten islanders whose labor made Rhodes the jewel of the medieval Mediterranean.
The above article is based on the book ‘Ρόδος’ authored by Theofanis Bogiannos. The article is published with his permission.
