The Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes — known to locals simply as the Kastello — is the great medieval castle-palace that crowns the fortified Old Town of Rhodes, in the Dodecanese islands of the southeastern Aegean. It was the seat of power of the Knights Hospitaller, the Order of the Knights of St John, who ruled Rhodes from the early 14th century and rebuilt an earlier Byzantine citadel into the fortified residence of their Grand Master. Standing at the head of the famous Street of the Knights, it is the centrepiece of the Medieval City of Rhodes, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1988 and one of the best-preserved medieval towns in Europe.
Behind its massive walls and twin round entrance towers the palace holds more than 150 rooms and a sequence of grand vaulted halls arranged around a broad inner courtyard. Much of what you walk through today is a careful reconstruction carried out in the 1930s, when the halls were laid with spectacular ancient mosaic floors brought over from the neighbouring island of Kos, and furnished with sculpture and antiquities. The palace also houses two important permanent exhibitions of the Archaeological Museum of Rhodes — one on ancient Rhodes across its long Greek and Roman history, the other on medieval and early-Christian Rhodes — so a single visit spans the classical island, the Knights and the centuries in between.
The palace sits at the top of the walled Old Town, an easy walk up the cobbled Street of the Knights from the medieval city and the cruise harbour, which makes it a natural highlight for cruise passengers and anyone staying on the island. The floors are stone and the halls are cool, but the approach through the Old Town is sun-exposed, so early-morning or late-afternoon hourly slots are the kindest. Because entry is timed by the hour, we handle the ticketing in your own language and reserve the slot you want, so you can give your energy to the mosaics and the halls instead of the queue. Many visitors pair the palace with a day out to the acropolis of Lindos elsewhere on the island.