This ancient City is a painters dream come true!
A wonderfully preserved medieval walled city containing grand palaces, temples, ancient churches and mosques, excellent museums and galleries, gardens, pretty squares with unique fountains, pebble mosaic pavements and labyrinthine alleyways to explore, full of quaint stone houses. There is no traffic as the whole city is pedestrianised. 
You can read the History of Rhodes Old Town at the bottom of this page.

Square with Fountain and part of ancient walls

The Seahorse Fountain

Old Turkish style Cafe with Mosaic floor

There are many cafes and restaurants where one can sit, sketch and watch the world go by.

One can also walk along the ancient City walls to admire the breathtaking views over the Old City, Rhodes Island and the Aegean and Mediterranean seas.

It is also a shopper’s paradise, with international designer boutiques, a wonderful medieval bazaar, many fantastic jewellery shops, and lots of interesting little shops to explore selling leathers, fabrics, antiques, shells, ceramics and much more.

There are quiet areas too. Come and explore!

Flowers are bloomin' everywhere!

The port and Harbour are also very pretty and there are excellent sandy beaches nearby for sunbathing and swimming.

The Hotel Andreas

The Hotel Andreas is a converted Turkish residence.
The original house once belonged to an affluent Moslem nobleman, a vizier, and his family. It was built in 1494!
The gentleman had more than one wife so one may accurately call this house
a former harem! 
The inner courtyard was once a vegetable garden with a well and the glass-enclosed terrace was an orange grove. 
The honeymoon tower was the nobleman's office, where he could monitor the arrival and departure of ships from the port. 

Dimitris Chyrsopolous, a native of Rhodes and a professional deep sea diver diver converted the house into a pension in 1982. The hotel is named after his son, Andreas.
For many years, Dimitri and his wife Josette, (a native of France) warmly welcomed countless travellers from the world over. French, Italian, Danish, Swedish, German, Spanish, British, Australian, American and Canadian guests contact the Hotel Andreas website without solicitation due to the reputation and popularity of the hotel which is well established and featured in most guides to Greece and the Greek Islands.

To view The Hotel Andreas website please open a new window and type in www.hotelandreas.com

The 11 rooms are each decorated in individual style with original paintings, 
ceramics and textiles. 
All the rooms have working telephones, and lock boxes for your valuables. 
The rooms are non smoking and are equipped with air conditioning.
Some rooms have private gardens and terraces.

The Panoramic Terrace

The heart of the pension is the 100 square meter glass enclosed terrace with stunning panoramic views of the Aegean Sea, the Old Town and the harbour.
You can relax, read and enjoy drinks here whilst looking at the beautiful view. 

There is a large library of English and French books which you can borrow
during your stay. 

Breakfast is served daily on the terrace from 7:30 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. Filter coffee or tea, juice, bread, cheese, butter, jam, milk with a choice of yoghurt, fresh fruit and honey. An omelette or any other style of eggs prepared to your request.
The property is built within a walled courtyard with lemon and orange trees
and flowering container plants.

The Holiday costs £700 per person. 
This price includes accommodation Bed and Breakfast at Hotel Andreas, tuition fee and return flights from / to  Cardiff airport.

If you wish to fly to Rhodes from another airport please contact Sue Paton
as soon as possible.

Non painting partners are very welcome at a reduced rate.

No children under 13 please!

I like to keep Painting Holiday groups small ensure lots of individual guidance. 
Places are allocated on a first come first served basis so please book early!

To book please email me at sue.paton@ntlworld.com
My mobile number is 07961 358393
My home telephone number is 029 20253295

The island of Rhodes is located at the crossroads of two major sea routes of the Mediterranean between the Aegean Sea and the coast of the Middle East, as well as Cyprus and Egypt.
The meeting point of three continents, it has known many civilisations.

Throughout its long history the different people who settled on Rhodes left their mark in all aspects of the island's culture - art, language and  architecture. Its strategic position brought to the island great wealth and made the city of Rhodes one of the leading cities of the ancient Greek world.

Rhodes is the largest island in the Dodecanese.
Its capital city, located at its northern tip, is the capital of the Prefecture with the Medieval Town in its centre. In 1988 the Medieval Town was designatedas a World Heritage City.
The Medieval Town of Rhodes is the result of different architectures belonging to various historic eras, predominantly those of the Knights of St. John.

Classical Period

The island was inhabited as early as the late Neolithic period (4000 B.C.). In 408 B.C. the three major cities of the island - Ialyssos, Kamiros and Lindos - founded the city of Rhodes.
The three centuries that followed were the golden age of Rhodes. Sea trade, skilled shipbuilders, and the careful and open-minded political and diplomatic manoeuvres of the city kept it strong and prosperous until Roman times.

In the same period, Rhodes produced excellent artistic work. The most
celebrated of all was the Colossus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, made between 304 and 293 B.C. by the Lyndian sculptor Hares. The construction of the Colossus took 12 years and was finished in 282 BC. For years, the statue, representing their sun god Helios, stood at the harbour entrance, until a strong earthquake hit Rhodes about 226 BC. The city was badly damaged, and the Colossus was demolished.

The urban plan of ancient Rhodes reflects directly the urban and philosophical ideas of the famous ancient Greek planner, Hippodamus. The street plan of the ancient city is known due to decades of archaeological excavations. The building blocks (insulae) measure 47.70 x 26.50m and all have the same dimensions. They included 3 houses each and were surrounded by streets 5-6 meters wide. Greater units constituted areas surrounded by wider streets (8-11 meters). Every area included 36 insulae or 108 houses. The ancient city had an
extended and well-constructed sewage system as well as a water supplynetwork

Roman Period

The independence of the city came to an end in 164 B.C. when Rhodes became a Province of the Roman Empire. But even as late as the 1st century A.D. Rhodes preserved much of its splendour and developed into one of the greatest centres of learning, science and the arts.

Apart from the surviving written sources, the archaeological research which continues to this day gives us a clear idea of the level of civilisation during this period.

Byzantine period

During the early Christian period (330-650 A.D.) Rhodes belonged to the eastern part of the Christianised Roman Empire, which is known inhistory as the Byzantine Empire. Though less significant and prosperous than before, the city was the See of a Bishop and had a great number of churches, among them some basilicas of impressive dimensions. 

It was also an important military base. The Arabs, who appeared for the first time in the Mediterranean in the 7th century, attacked Rhodes and occupied it for some decades. The city shrank during the following centuries and was fortified with new walls. At the same time it was divided into two zones, one reserved for the political and military leadership and the other where the laymen lived, a division that reflects the social reality of medieval times. 

Due to lack of written sources we have little information concerning
this period. The restoration work of the Italians neglected or evenharmed surviving buildings.

Knights period

In 1309 the island was sold to the Order of the Knights Hospitaliers of Saint John of Jerusalem. The Order was established in the 12th centuryin Jerusalem for the purpose of nursing pilgrims and crusaders, but soon enough it was transformed into a combat unit and acquired vasttracts of land. Having retreated from Jerusalem and then Cyprus, the Order established its Headquarters on Rhodes, taking a leading role in the Eastern Mediterranean at this time. 

During the Knights' era the fortifications were extended, modernisedand continuously reinforced. A hospital, a palace and several churcheswere among the many public buildings constructed at that time, offering interesting examples of Gothic and Renaissance architecture.

In spite of the hostilities with the Ottoman Empire, sea trade was a source of wealth and the markets of the city were thriving. Under the Knights, the island had a period of prosperity and the relations between them and the local population was characterised by tolerance and often by close collaboration. Most of the streets of the Medieval Town coincided with those of the ancient city. The division of the town into two parts was retained. 

In Rhodes the Order kept a well-organized archive that included documents issued by its leadership, correspondence, notary acts, etc. The archive has survived and is found today in the National Library of Malta. It constitutes a valuable source of information for the period. 

The city was divided into its two parts by an inner wall. The Northernpart, known as Chastel, Chateau, Castrum, Castellum or Conventus, wasthe site of the Grand Master’s Palace, the church of the Knights, theLatin Cathedral, the Catholic Bishop’s residence, various quarters, the Knights houses, a hospital etc. The South part, known as ville, burgus or burgum was the area where the laymen lived and included the market, synagogues, churches and public and commercial buildings.

Ottoman period

In 1522 the Ottoman Turks conquered the city after a second long siege.
New buildings were constructed: mosques, public baths and mansions for the new patrons. The Greeks were forced to abandon the fortified city and move to new suburbs outside its walls. In the Ottoman era Rhodes lost its international character. The city maintained its main economic function as a market for the agricultural products of the interior of the island and the surrounding small islands.

After the establishment of their sovereignty in the island,the Ottoman Turks repaired the damaged fortifications, converted mostof the churches into mosques and transformed the major houses intoprivate mansions or public buildings. This transformation was a
long-term process that aimed to adapt the buildings to the Ottoman way of living. The Knights period facades with their sculptureddecorations, the arched gates and hewn stone walls were enriched withthe random character of the Ottoman architecture and adapted to the local climate and culture. In this process most of the architectural features of the existing buildings were preserved.

The most characteristic additions were the baths, usually in the back of the buildings, and the enclosed wooden balconies on the facades over the narrow streets. In this way most of the buildings of the Hospitaliers period in the Medieval Town were well preserved. The result was a mixture of oriental architecture with imposing western architectural remains and more recent buildings, which were characteristic of the local architecture of the time.

In the l9th century the decline of the Ottoman Empire resultedin the general neglect of the town and its buildings, which further deteriorated due to the strong earthquakes that often plague the area.

Italian period

Italian troops took over the island and the rest of the Dodecanese in 1912 and in 1923 Italy established a colony Isole Italiane del Egeo.The Italians demolished the houses that had been built on and beside the walls during the Ottoman era and turned the Jewish and Ottoman
cemeteries into a green zone surrounding the Medieval Town. They preserved the remains of the Knights period and removed all the Ottoman additions and also reconstructed the Grand Master’s Palace.

In addition, they established an Institute for the study of the History and Culture of the region. The Italians undertook extensive infrastructure works, roads, electricity, the port, etc. and radically transformedthe town of Rhodes, which was supplied with a new urban plan, building regulations and many new public and private buildings.

Modern period

The English bombs that fell on the medieval city of Rhodes in 1944 claimed human lives and destroyed a great number of buildings, leaving large gaps in the urban tissue. One of the first Decrees of the Greek administration designated those areas as reserved for future
excavations and a number of edifices as safeguarded buildings.

In 1957, a new city plan was approved by a Decree and in 1960 the entire medieval town was designated as a protected monument by the Ministry of Culture. In 1961 and 1963 new Decrees were issued concerning the new city plan.They provided for the widening ofexisting streets and the opening of new ones. These were not implemented in the old city due to the resistance
of the Archaeological Service. 

In 1988, the old town of Rhodes was designated as a World
Heritage City by UNESCO.

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