Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Ottomans' most enduring civic contributions are the
Ottoman Library
, opposite
the Süleymaniye (Mon-Sat 9.30am-4pm; tip custodian), which has a rich collection of
early medieval manuscripts and Korans; the
imaret
(mess-hall) at Sokrátous 179, now
an exceptionally pleasant café (
Palio Syssitio
); and the imposing 1558
Mustafa Hammam
(Turkish bath) on Platía Aríonos (Mon-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat 8am-5pm, last admission
4pm; €5). Bring everything you need - soap, shampoo, towel, loofah - to enjoy
separate,
au naturel
men's and women's sections.
Jewish Rhodes
Beyond the tiled central fountain in Platía Ippokrátous, Odhós Aristotélous leads to
Platía tón Evréon Martýron
(“Square of the Jewish Martyrs”), named in memory of the
2100 Jews of Rhodes and Kos who were sent to the concentration camps in 1944; a
black granite column honours them. Of four synagogues that once graced the nearby
Jewish quarter, only ornate, arcaded, pebble-floored
Kal Kadosh Shalom
(Mon-Fri &
Sun 10am-3pm; donation) on Odhós Simíou, just south, survives. To one side, a
well-labelled, three-room
museum
thematically chronicles the community's life on
Rhodes.
The New Town (Neohóri)
What's now known as the New Town - in Greek,
Neohóri
- dates originally to the
Ottoman era, when Orthodox Greeks excluded from the fortified city built their own
residential districts outside the walls. Only
Kumburnú
, the area immediately north of the
Old Town, at the tip of the headland, bears any relevance to visitors. On its eastern side,
Mandhráki yacht harbour serves as the base for excursion boats and some ferry
companies, while the streets immediately inland hold the workaday shops, offices and
agencies that keep the town as a whole ticking along. The headland itself is surrounded
by a continuous
beach
of gritty shingle (loungers, parasols and showers), particularly
at
Élli
, the more sheltered east-facing section. Despite being so close to the city, the water
offshore is exceptionally clean. That explains the many hotels and restaurants hereabouts,
but judged on its own merits the New Town makes a poor holiday destination.
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Aquarium
Daily: April-Oct 9am-8.30pm; Nov-March 9am-4.30pm • €5.50 •
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hcmr.gr
Perched at the northernmost point of the island, Rhodes'
Aquarium
is as much a
museum as a conventional aquarium. It does hold tanks of live fish, not necessarily
captioned correctly, but most of its space is taken up with displays on the history and
function of the building itself, as well as a monk seal buried as an ancient family's pet,
and a stuffed Cuvier's beaked whale.
Museum of Modern Greek Art
Pl. G. Harítou • Tues-Thurs & Sat 8am-2pm, Fri 8am-2pm & 5-8pm • €3 •
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mgamuseum.gr
Near the northernmost tip of the New Town, on what's colloquially known as “100
Palms Square”, Rhodes'
Museum of Modern Greek Art
holds the most important
collection of twentieth-century Greek painting outside Athens. All the heavy hitters
- Hatzikyriakos-Ghikas, surrealist Nikos Engonopoulos, naïve artist Theophilos,
neo-Byzantinist Fotis Kontoglou - are amply represented. Some of Kontoglou's greatest
frescoes, dating from 1951-61, are in the
Evangelismós basilica
at Mandhráki.
What used to be the main, cramped home of the museum, on Platía Sýmis 2 in
the Old Town, is now the
annexe
(Tues-Sat 8am-2pm, same ticket), devoted to
maps, prints and special exhibits. Both premises have excellent gift shops.
Hellenistic Rhodes
A half-hour, 2km walk west and uphill from the Old Town - a hike best undertaken
just before sunset, both for the views and the temperature - leads to the unenclosed
