Rhodes Panagia tou Kastrou

Location: Town

Standing at the eastern end of the Street of the Knights, Panagia tou Kastrou (Our Lady of the Castle) is the oldest and largest surviving Byzantine church inside the Old Town of Rhodes.

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The original building dates from the 11th century, and was designed following the cross-in-square type, the dominant form of middle- and late-Byzantine temples. After the island was occupied by the Knights of Saint John in the early 14th century, the edifice was remodeled and took its current form of a Gothic three-aisled basilica with a transept. The eastern side of the temple is part of the seaward fortifications and forms an imposing tower with rectangular ramparts. During the times of Ottoman rule, the church was converted into a mosque, but all Ottoman additions were removed by the Italian colonists in the early 20th century.

Today, little remains of the church’s original murals, and the large painting that used to adorn the wall above the main entrance is lost. However, the coats of arms of the Grand Master Helion de Villeneuve and Pope John XXII can still be discerned on the central arched window, testifying to their contribution to the temple’s reconstruction in the 14th century. Panagia tou Castrou now houses a permanent exposition of medieval icons and sculptures.