1.
Fortifications of Rhodes
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The portion of fortifications facing the harbour is instead composed of a crenellated wall. On the moles towers and defensive forts are found, the defence of different portions of fortifications was assigned to different Langue of Knights. Bastions and terrepleins still hold the name of the langue involved, the earthquake of 226 BC severely damaged the fortifications, but they were soon rebuilt. The Byzantines built a fortress on the highest part of the town, when the Knight Hospitallers conquered the island, the town was still wealthy but in decline. The richness of the island attracted the Ottomans from the nearby coast, the expansion of the walls was undertaken by Grand Master Antonio Fluvian de Riviere who allowed the town of Rhodes to reach the current area of about 42 hectares. The wall curtain was finished between 1457 and 1465, the Byzantine fortifications were demolished leaving just a portion of those of the old fort known at the time of Knights as Collachium. In 1440 the Mameluke sultan of Egypt tried without success to conquer the town sieging it for 40 days, in 1481 a destructive earthquake struck the island causing severe damages to the houses and the fortification and about 30,000 casualties. In the following years Grand Masters Pierre dAubusson, Emery dAmboise, Fabrizio del Carretto, for the purpose they called to Rhodes the best Italian military architects. Among them Matteo Gioeni, Basilio della Scuola, Gerolamo Bartolucci, the latter two were present in Rhodes during the final siege in 1522. The Bastion of Italy in which the Ottomans had opened a breach in 1480 was rebuilt with a chemin de ronde for the reverse fire of cannons on the nearby spans of wall. This bastion was named Bastion Del Carretto after the Grand Master, the gate of Saint John was closed and a pentagonal bastion with the same name was built on the western side of the walls to guard Gate dAmboise. After The Ottoman conquered Rhodes in 1522 they did not demolish the walls but repaired them, after their expulsion from Rhodes, the Hospitallers moved to the central Mediterranean island of Malta in 1530. They settled in the town of Birgu, and the first fortifications they built within the city were in a style to the fortifications of Rhodes. There are 11 gates to access the old city, some of them are ancient, some are modern. The ancient gate of Saint George was closed by the Grand Master dAubusson after the siege of 1480 and transformed into a bastion. Starting from the Palace of the Grand Master that is from North-West towards the South they are and it has a triple defensive belt with chemins de ronde, two round towers and covered entrance. Remains of the ancient studded wood doors are still visible, the Saint George bastion, pentagonal in shape, covered with its cannons the access through the gate. The Gate of St Athanasios was built between 1441 and 1442 and it is also known to locals as Saint Francis Gate since the church of Saint Francis of Assisi, built by the Italians, is just outside the gate
2.
Rhodes
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Rhodes is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of land area and also the island groups historical capital. Administratively the island forms a municipality within the Rhodes regional unit. The principal town of the island and seat of the municipality is Rhodes, the city of Rhodes had 50,636 inhabitants in 2011. It is located northeast of Crete, southeast of Athens and just off the Anatolian coast of Turkey, Rhodes nickname is The island of the Knights, named after the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, who once conquered the land. Historically, Rhodes was famous worldwide for the Colossus of Rhodes, the Medieval Old Town of the City of Rhodes has been declared a World Heritage Site. Today, it is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe, the island has been known as Ρόδος in Greek throughout its history. In addition, the island has been called Rodi in Italian, Rodos in Turkish, and Rodi or Rodes in Ladino. The island of Rhodes is shaped like a spearhead,79.7 km long and 38 km wide, with an area of approximately 1,400 square kilometres. The city of Rhodes is located at the tip of the island, as well as the site of the ancient. The main air gateway is located 14 km to the southwest of the city in Paradisi, the road network radiates from the city along the east and west coasts. There are mineral-rich spring water used to give medicinal baths and the spa resorts offer various health treatments, Rhodes is situated 363 km east-south-east from the Greek mainland, and 18 km from the southern shore of Turkey. The interior of the island is mountainous, sparsely inhabited and covered with forests of pine, while the shores are rocky, the island has arable strips of land where citrus fruit, wine grapes, vegetables, olives and other crops are grown. The Rhodian population of deer was found to be genetically distinct in 2005. In Petaloudes Valley, large numbers of tiger moths gather during the summer months, mount Attavyros, at 1,216 metres, is the islands highest point of elevation. Earthquakes include the 226 BC earthquake that destroyed the Colossus of Rhodes, one on 3 May 1481 which destroyed much of the city of Rhodes, and one on 26 June 1926. On 15 July 2008, Rhodes was struck by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake causing minor damage to a few old buildings, Rhodes has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate. The island was inhabited in the Neolithic period, although remains of this culture. In the 16th century BC, the Minoans came to Rhodes, later Greek mythology recalled a Rhodian race called the Telchines and associated the island of Rhodes with Danaus, it was sometimes nicknamed Telchinis
3.
Greece
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Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine regions, Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace, Crete. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands, eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming a part of the Roman Empire and its successor. The Greek Orthodox Church also shaped modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World, falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence. Greeces rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe, Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greeces unique cultural heritage, large industry, prominent shipping sector. It is the largest economy in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor, the names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, all three stages of the stone age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries and these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC and this ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, in 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the worlds first democratic system of government in Athens
4.
Castle
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A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble. Usage of the term has varied over time and has applied to structures as diverse as hill forts. Over the approximately 900 years that castles were built, they took on a great many forms with different features, although some, such as curtain walls. A European innovation, castles originated in the 9th and 10th centuries, after the fall of the Carolingian Empire resulted in its territory being divided among individual lords and princes. Although their military origins are often emphasised in castle studies, the structures served as centres of administration. Many castles were built from earth and timber, but had their defences replaced later by stone. Early castles often exploited natural defences, lacking features such as towers and arrowslits, in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, a scientific approach to castle defence emerged. This led to the proliferation of towers, with an emphasis on flanking fire, many new castles were polygonal or relied on concentric defence – several stages of defence within each other that could all function at the same time to maximise the castles firepower. These changes in defence have been attributed to a mixture of castle technology from the Crusades, such as concentric fortification, not all the elements of castle architecture were military in nature, so that devices such as moats evolved from their original purpose of defence into symbols of power. Some grand castles had long winding approaches intended to impress and dominate their landscape, while castles continued to be built well into the 16th century, new techniques to deal with improved cannon fire made them uncomfortable and undesirable places to live. As a result, true castles went into decline and were replaced by artillery forts with no role in civil administration, and country houses that were indefensible. From the 18th century onwards, there was a renewed interest in castles with the construction of castles, part of a romantic revival of Gothic architecture. The word castle is derived from the Latin word castellum, which is a diminutive of the word castrum, meaning fortified place. The Old English castel, Old French castel or chastel, French château, Spanish castillo, Italian castello, the word castle was introduced into English shortly before the Norman Conquest to denote this type of building, which was then new to England. In its simplest terms, the definition of a castle accepted amongst academics is a fortified residence. Feudalism was the link between a lord and his vassal where, in return for service and the expectation of loyalty. Castles served a range of purposes, the most important of which were military, administrative, as well as defensive structures, castles were also offensive tools which could be used as a base of operations in enemy territory
5.
Government of Greece
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Government of Greece, Greek government or the Hellenic Government, is the government of the Hellenic Republic. Established in its present form in 1974, head of government is the prime minister as the President of the Government, which recommends ministers and deputy ministers to the President of the Republic for appointment. The prime minister, the ministers and the ministers, belong to the supreme decision-making committee. The government ministers and alternate ministers all sit, usually, in Parliament, also, are accountable to the Parliament. Deputy ministers are not members of the government, they made out a lot by law
6.
Byzantine Empire
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It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, several signal events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period of transition during which the Roman Empires Greek East and Latin West divided. Constantine I reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital, under Theodosius I, Christianity became the Empires official state religion and other religious practices were proscribed. Finally, under the reign of Heraclius, the Empires military, the borders of the Empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Maurice, the Empires eastern frontier was expanded, in a matter of years the Empire lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Arabs. This battle opened the way for the Turks to settle in Anatolia, the Empire recovered again during the Komnenian restoration, such that by the 12th century Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest European city. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one of several small states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. Its remaining territories were annexed by the Ottomans over the 15th century. The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 finally ended the Byzantine Empire, the term comes from Byzantium, the name of the city of Constantinople before it became Constantines capital. This older name of the city would rarely be used from this point onward except in historical or poetic contexts. The publication in 1648 of the Byzantine du Louvre, and in 1680 of Du Canges Historia Byzantina further popularised the use of Byzantine among French authors, however, it was not until the mid-19th century that the term came into general use in the Western world. The Byzantine Empire was known to its inhabitants as the Roman Empire, the Empire of the Romans, Romania, the Roman Republic, Graikia, and also as Rhōmais. The inhabitants called themselves Romaioi and Graikoi, and even as late as the 19th century Greeks typically referred to modern Greek as Romaika and Graikika. The authority of the Byzantine emperor as the legitimate Roman emperor was challenged by the coronation of Charlemagne as Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III in the year 800. No such distinction existed in the Islamic and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was more seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire. In the Islamic world, the Roman Empire was known primarily as Rûm, the Roman army succeeded in conquering many territories covering the entire Mediterranean region and coastal regions in southwestern Europe and north Africa. These territories were home to different cultural groups, both urban populations and rural populations. The West also suffered heavily from the instability of the 3rd century AD
7.
Knights Hospitaller
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It was headquartered variously in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Rhodes and Malta, until it became known by its current name. Some scholars, however, consider that the Amalfitan order and hospital were different from Gerard Thoms order and it regained strength during the early 19th century as it redirected itself toward religious and humanitarian causes. In 1834, the order, by this time known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, acquired new headquarters in Rome, in 800, Emperor Charlemagne enlarged Probus hospital and added a library to it. About 200 years later, in 1005, Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah destroyed the hospital, in 1023, merchants from Amalfi and Salerno in Italy were given permission by the Caliph Ali az-Zahir of Egypt to rebuild the hospital in Jerusalem. The hospital, which was built on the site of the monastery of Saint John the Baptist and it was served by the Order of Saint Benedict. Gerard acquired territory and revenues for his order throughout the Kingdom of Jerusalem, under his successor, Raymond du Puy de Provence, the original hospice was expanded to an infirmary near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Initially the group cared for pilgrims in Jerusalem, but the order extended to providing pilgrims with an armed escort. Thus the Order of St. John imperceptibly became military without losing its charitable character. Raymond du Puy, who succeeded Gerard as Master of the Hospital in 1118, organised a militia from the orders members, in 1130, Pope Innocent II gave the order its coat of arms, a silver cross in a field of red. The Hospitallers and the Knights Templar became the most formidable military orders in the Holy Land, frederick Barbarossa, the Holy Roman Emperor, pledged his protection to the Knights of St. John in a charter of privileges granted in 1185. The statutes of Roger de Moulins deal only with the service of the sick, the order numbered three distinct classes of membership, the military brothers, the brothers infirmarians, and the brothers chaplains, to whom was entrusted the divine service. In 1248 Pope Innocent IV approved a military dress for the Hospitallers to be worn during battle. Instead of a closed cape over their armour, they wore a red surcoat with a cross emblazoned on it. Many of the more substantial Christian fortifications in the Holy Land were built by the Templars, at the height of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Hospitallers held seven great forts and 140 other estates in the area. The two largest of these, their bases of power in the Kingdom and in the Principality of Antioch, were the Krak des Chevaliers, the property of the Order was divided into priories, subdivided into bailiwicks, which in turn were divided into commanderies. As early as the late 12th century the order had begun to achieve recognition in the Kingdom of England, as a result, buildings such as St Johns Jerusalem and the Knights Gate, Quenington in England were built on land donated to the order by local nobility. An Irish house was established at Kilmainham, near Dublin, after the fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1291, the Knights were confined to the County of Tripoli and, when Acre was captured in 1291, the order sought refuge in the Kingdom of Cyprus. His successor, Foulques de Villaret, executed the plan, and on 15 August 1310, after four years of campaigning
8.
Kingdom of Italy
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The state was founded as a result of the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which can be considered its legal predecessor state. Italy declared war on Austria in alliance with Prussia in 1866, Italian troops entered Rome in 1870, ending more than one thousand years of Papal temporal power. Italy entered into a Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1882, victory in the war gave Italy a permanent seat in the Council of the League of Nations. Fascist Italy is the era of National Fascist Party rule from 1922 to 1943 with Benito Mussolini as head of government, according to Payne, Fascist regime passed through several relatively distinct phases. The first phase was nominally a continuation of the parliamentary system, then came the second phase, the construction of the Fascist dictatorship proper from 1925 to 1929. The third phase, with activism, was 1929–34. The war itself was the phase with its disasters and defeats. Italy was allied with Nazi Germany in World War II until 1943 and it switched sides to the Allies after ousting Mussolini and shutting down the Fascist party in areas controlled by the Allied invaders. Shortly after the war, civil discontent led to the referendum of 1946 on whether Italy would remain a monarchy or become a republic. Italians decided to abandon the monarchy and form the Italian Republic, the Kingdom of Italy claimed all of the territory which is modern-day Italy. The development of the Kingdoms territory progressed under Italian re-unification until 1870, the state for a long period of time did not include Trieste or Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, which are in Italy today, and only annexed them in 1919. After the Second World War, the borders of present-day Italy were founded, the Kingdom of Italy was theoretically a constitutional monarchy. Executive power belonged to the monarch, as executed through appointed ministers, two chambers of parliament restricted the monarchs power—an appointive Senate and an elective Chamber of Deputies. The kingdoms constitution was the Statuto Albertino, the governing document of the Kingdom of Sardinia. In theory, ministers were responsible to the king. However, in practice, it was impossible for an Italian government to stay in office without the support of Parliament, members of the Chamber of Deputies were elected by plurality voting system elections in uninominal districts. A candidate needed the support of 50% of those voting, and of 25% of all enrolled voters, if not all seats were filled on the first ballot, a runoff was held shortly afterwards for the remaining vacancies. After a brief multinominal experimentation in 1882, proportional representation into large, regional, Socialists became the major party, but they were unable to form a government in a parliament split into three different factions, with Christian Populists and classical liberals
9.
Siege of Rhodes (1480)
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In 1480 the small Knights Hospitaller garrison of Rhodes withstood an attack of the Ottoman Empire. In 1470, the island of Tilos was evacuated to Rhodes because they were susceptible to attacks from the Ottoman Empire, in 1475, the island of Chalki was also evacuated to Rhodes for the same reason. On 23 May 1480 an Ottoman fleet of 160 ships appeared before Rhodes, at the gulf of Trianda, the Knights Hospitaller garrison was led by Grand Master Pierre dAubusson. The Knights were reinforced from France by 500 knights and 2,000 soldiers under dAubussons brother Antoine, the Turkish artillery kept up an unbroken bombardment and on 9 June the infantry made a series of attacks. Grand Master dAubusson himself sped to the aid of the garrison, shortly after came a second attack on the tower, this time on the eastern sector of the wall towards the bay of Akandia, which was the battle station of the tongue of Italy and was quite weak. During the bombardment from the Turkish artillery, the Knights and the people dug a new moat on the inside of the wall at this point. Once again the Knights reacted valiantly and decisively and after a battle with many casualties on both sides, the danger was once more averted. The last act of the drama was played out in the Jewish quarter of the city, at dawn on 27 July the Turks launched a vigorous offensive and their vanguard of around 2,500 Janissaries managed to take the tower of Italy and enter the city. The grand master, wounded in five places, directed the battle, after three hours of fighting the enemy were decimated and the exhausted survivors began to withdraw. The Knights´ counter-attack caused the Turks to beat a retreat, dragging along with them the Vizier. The Hospitallers reached as far as his tent and took, along with other booty, on that day between three and four thousand Turks were slain. On August 17,1480, the Ottoman fleet gave up their attempt to capture Rhodes, sultan Mehmed II was furious and would have attacked the island again, but his death in 1481 put a stop to the attempt. The French knight Guillaume Caoursin, vice-chancellor of the Knights Hospitaller, fought in the siege of Rhodes, an earlier English translation was the work of John Caius the Elder. DAubussons own report on the siege can be found in John Taaffes history of the Holy, military, in 1521-22 the Ottomans besieged Rhodes once again and captured the city and island. A new history, Stroud, The History Press, ISBN 978-0-7524-6178-6
10.
Siege of Rhodes (1522)
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The first siege in 1480 had been unsuccessful. The Knights of St. John, or Knights Hospitallers, had captured Rhodes in the early 14th century after the loss of Acre, the last Crusader stronghold in Palestine in 1291. From Rhodes, they became a part of the trade in the Aegean sea. Since the previous siege the fortress had received many upgrades from the new school of trace italienne, gates were reduced in number, and the old battlement parapets were replaced with slanting ones suitable for artillery fights. A team of masons, labourers and slaves did the construction work, in 1521, Philippe Villiers de LIsle-Adam was elected Grand Master of the Order. The rest of Europe ignored his request for assistance, but some Venetian troops from Crete joined the knights, the city was protected by two and, in some places three, rings of stone walls and several large bastions. The defence of the walls and bastions was assigned in sections to the different Langues into which the knights had been organized since 1301, the harbour entrance was blocked by a heavy iron chain, behind which the Orders fleet was anchored. When the Turkish invasion force of 400 ships arrived on Rhodes on 26 June 1522, sultan Suleiman himself arrived with the army of 100,000 men on 28 July to take personal charge. The Turks blockaded the harbour and bombarded the town with artillery from the land side. They also sought to undermine the fortifications through tunnels and mines, twice more the Turks assaulted the breach that day, but each time the English brothers, aided by German brothers, held the gap. On 24 September, Mustafa Pasha ordered a new assault, aimed mainly at the bastions of Spain, England, Provence. After a day of fighting, during which the bastion of Spain changed hands twice. He sentenced Mustafa Pasha, his brother-in-law, to death for his failure to take the city, Suleiman offered the citizens peace, their lives and food if they surrendered, the alternative would be death or slavery if the Turks were compelled to take the city by force. Pressed by the townspeople, Villiers de LIsle-Adam agreed to negotiate, the bastion of Spain fell on 17 December. On 22 December, the representatives of the citys Latin and Greek inhabitants accepted Suleimans terms, the knights were given twelve days to leave the island and would be allowed to take with them their weapons and any valuables or religious icons they desired. Islanders who wished to leave could do so at any time within a three-year period, no church would be desecrated or turned into a mosque. Those remaining on the island would be free of Ottoman taxation for five years, on 1 January 1523, the remaining knights and soldiers marched out of the town, with banners flying, drums beating and in battle armour. They boarded the 50 ships which had made available to them and sailed to Crete
11.
World Heritage Site
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A World Heritage Site is a landmark which has been officially recognized by the United Nations, specifically by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Sites are selected on the basis of having cultural, historical, scientific or some form of significance. UNESCO regards these sites as being important to the interests of humanity. The programme catalogues, names, and conserves sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common culture, under certain conditions, listed sites can obtain funds from the World Heritage Fund. The program was founded with the Convention Concerning the Protection of the Worlds Cultural and Natural Heritage, since then,192 state parties have ratified the convention, making it one of the most adhered to international instruments. As of July 2016,1052 sites are listed,814 cultural,203 natural, in 1959, the governments of Egypt and Sudan requested UNESCO to assist their countries to protect and rescue the endangered monuments and sites. In 1960, the Director-General of UNESCO launched an appeal to the Member States for an International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, the campaign, which ended in 1980, was considered a success. The project cost $80 million, about $40 million of which was collected from 50 countries, the projects success led to other safeguarding campaigns, saving Venice and its lagoon in Italy, the ruins of Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan, and the Borobodur Temple Compounds in Indonesia. UNESCO then initiated, with the International Council on Monuments and Sites, the United States initiated the idea of cultural conservation with nature conservation. The International Union for Conservation of Nature developed similar proposals in 1968, the Convention came into force on 17 December 1975. As of June 2016, it has been ratified by 192 states, including 188 UN member states plus the Cook Islands, the Holy See, Niue, a country must first list its significant cultural and natural sites, the result is called the Tentative List. A country may not nominate sites that have not been first included on the Tentative List, next, it can place sites selected from that list into a Nomination File. The Nomination File is evaluated by the International Council on Monuments and Sites and these bodies then make their recommendations to the World Heritage Committee. There are ten selection criteria – a site must meet at least one of them to be included on the list, up to 2004, there were six criteria for cultural heritage and four criteria for natural heritage. In 2005, this was modified so there is now only one set of ten criteria. Nominated sites must be of outstanding value and meet at least one of the ten criteria. Thus, the Geneva Convention treaty promulgates, Article 53, PROTECTION OF CULTURAL OBJECTS AND OF PLACES OF WORSHIP. There are 1,052 World Heritage Sites located in 165 States Party, of these,814 are cultural,203 are natural and 35 are mixed properties
12.
Rhodes (city)
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Rhodes is the principal city and a former municipality on the island of Rhodes in the Dodecanese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Rhodes, of which it is the seat and it has a population of approximately 90,000 in its metropolitan area. Rhodes has been famous since antiquity as the site of Colossus of Rhodes, the citadel of Rhodes, built by the Hospitalliers, is one of the best-preserved medieval towns in Europe, which in 1988 was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city of Rhodes is an international tourist destination. The city of Rhodes is situated in the north-east tip of the island, the municipal unit has an area of 19.481 km2. It is the smallest municipal unit of the island in terms of land area and it borders the Aegean Sea to the north, the east and the west and with the municipalities of Ialysos and Kallithea in the south. In Köppen climate classification, it is classified as hot-summer Mediterranean climate, the lowest recorded temperature −3 °C and the highest recorded temperature was 42 °C. The island of Rhodes is at a crossroads between Europe, the Middle East, and Africa and this has given the city and the island many different identities, cultures, architectures, and languages over its long history. Its position in major sea routes has given Rhodes a very rich history, the island has been inhabited since about 4000 BC. The Colossus of Rhodes, one of the original Seven Wonders of the Ancient World was built by the Lindian sculptor Chares between 304 and 293 BC, which took 12 years and was completed in 282 BC. The statue represented their sun god Helios, which stood at the harbour entrance, the ancient city had a well-constructed sewage system as well as a water supply network as designed by Hippodamus. A strong earthquake hit Rhodes about 226 BC, badly damaging the city, in 164 BC, Rhodes came under Roman control. It was able to keep its beauty and develop into a center of learning for arts. The Romans took from the Rhodians their maritime law and applied it to their shipping, many traces of the Roman period still exist throughout the city and give an insight into the level of civilization at the time. According to Acts 21,1, the Apostle Paul stopped at Rhodes near the end of his missionary journey. In medieval times, Rhodes was an important Byzantine trading post, in the early years of the divided Roman Empire, the Isaurians, a mountain tribe from Cilicia, invaded the island and burned the city. In the 7th century AD it was captured by the Arabs, the latter were the ones who removed the scattered pieces of the Colossus from the port and moved them to Syria where they destroyed them to make coins. The Knights Hospitallers captured and established their headquarters on Rhodes when they left Cyprus after the persecution of the Knights Templar in 1307, pope Clement V confirmed the Hospitallers possession of the Island in 1309
13.
Greek language
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Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
14.
Italian language
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By most measures, Italian, together with Sardinian, is the closest to Latin of the Romance languages. Italian is a language in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City. Italian is spoken by minorities in places such as France, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Crimea and Tunisia and by large expatriate communities in the Americas. Many speakers are native bilinguals of both standardized Italian and other regional languages, Italian is the fourth most studied language in the world. Italian is a major European language, being one of the languages of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. It is the third most widely spoken first language in the European Union with 65 million native speakers, including Italian speakers in non-EU European countries and on other continents, the total number of speakers is around 85 million. Italian is the working language of the Holy See, serving as the lingua franca in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as the official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Italian is known as the language of music because of its use in musical terminology and its influence is also widespread in the arts and in the luxury goods market. Italian has been reported as the fourth or fifth most frequently taught foreign language in the world, Italian was adopted by the state after the Unification of Italy, having previously been a literary language based on Tuscan as spoken mostly by the upper class of Florentine society. Its development was influenced by other Italian languages and to some minor extent. Its vowels are the second-closest to Latin after Sardinian, unlike most other Romance languages, Italian retains Latins contrast between short and long consonants. As in most Romance languages, stress is distinctive, however, Italian as a language used in Italy and some surrounding regions has a longer history. What would come to be thought of as Italian was first formalized in the early 14th century through the works of Tuscan writer Dante Alighieri, written in his native Florentine. Dante is still credited with standardizing the Italian language, and thus the dialect of Florence became the basis for what would become the language of Italy. Italian was also one of the recognised languages in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Italy has always had a dialect for each city, because the cities. Those dialects now have considerable variety, as Tuscan-derived Italian came to be used throughout Italy, features of local speech were naturally adopted, producing various versions of Regional Italian. Even in the case of Northern Italian languages, however, scholars are not to overstate the effects of outsiders on the natural indigenous developments of the languages
15.
Gothic architecture
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Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished in Europe during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture and its characteristics include the pointed arch, the ribbed vault and the flying buttress. Gothic architecture is most familiar as the architecture of many of the cathedrals, abbeys. It is also the architecture of many castles, palaces, town halls, guild halls, universities and to a less prominent extent, private dwellings, for this reason a study of Gothic architecture is largely a study of cathedrals and churches. A series of Gothic revivals began in mid-18th-century England, spread through 19th-century Europe and continued, largely for ecclesiastical and university structures, the term Gothic architecture originated as a pejorative description. Hence, François Rabelais, also of the 16th century, imagines an inscription over the door of his utopian Abbey of Thélème, Here enter no hypocrites, slipping in a slighting reference to Gotz and Ostrogotz. Authorities such as Christopher Wren lent their aid in deprecating the old medieval style, the Company disapproved of several of these new manners, which are defective and which belong for the most part to the Gothic. Gothic architecture is the architecture of the medieval period, characterised by use of the pointed arch. As an architectural style, Gothic developed primarily in ecclesiastical architecture, the greatest number of surviving Gothic buildings are churches. The Gothic style is most particularly associated with the cathedrals of Northern France. At the end of the 12th century, Europe was divided into a multitude of city states, norway came under the influence of England, while the other Scandinavian countries and Poland were influenced by trading contacts with the Hanseatic League. Angevin kings brought the Gothic tradition from France to Southern Italy, throughout Europe at this time there was a rapid growth in trade and an associated growth in towns. Germany and the Lowlands had large flourishing towns that grew in comparative peace, in trade and competition with other, or united for mutual weal. Civic building was of importance to these towns as a sign of wealth. England and France remained largely feudal and produced grand domestic architecture for their kings, dukes and bishops, the Catholic Church prevailed across Europe at this time, influencing not only faith but also wealth and power. Bishops were appointed by the lords and they often ruled as virtual princes over large estates. The early Medieval periods had seen a growth in monasticism, with several different orders being prevalent. Foremost were the Benedictines whose great abbey churches vastly outnumbered any others in France, a part of their influence was that towns developed around them and they became centers of culture, learning and commerce
16.
Colossus of Rhodes
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The Colossus of Rhodes /roʊdz/ was a statue of the Greek titan-god of the sun Helios, erected in the city of Rhodes, on the Greek island of the same name, by Chares of Lindos in 280 BC. One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, it was constructed to celebrate Rhodes victory over the ruler of Cyprus, Antigonus I Monophthalmus and it was destroyed during the earthquake of 226 BC, and never rebuilt. As of 2015, there are plans to build a new Colossus at Rhodes Harbour. In the late 4th century BC, Rhodes, allied with Ptolemy I of Egypt, prevented a mass invasion staged by their common enemy, Antigonus I Monophthalmus. In 304 BC a relief force of ships sent by Ptolemy arrived, to celebrate their victory, the Rhodians sold the equipment left behind for 300 talents and decided to use the money to build a colossal statue of their patron god, Helios. Construction was left to the direction of Chares, a native of Lindos in Rhodes and his teacher, the sculptor Lysippos, had constructed a 22-metre-high bronze statue of Zeus at Tarentum. Ancient accounts, which differ to some degree, describe the structure as being built with iron tie bars to which brass plates were fixed to form the skin. The interior of the structure, which stood on a 15-metre high white marble pedestal near the Mandraki harbour entrance, was filled with stone blocks as construction progressed. Other sources place the Colossus on a breakwater in the harbour, according to most contemporary descriptions, the statue itself was about 70 cubits, or 33 metres tall. Upper portions were built with the use of an earthen ramp. During the building, workers would pile mounds of earth on the sides of the colossus, upon completion all of the earth was removed and the colossus was left to stand alone. After twelve years, in 280 BC, the statue was completed, preserved in Greek anthologies of poetry is what is believed to be the genuine dedication text for the Colossus. To you, O Sun, the people of Dorian Rhodes set up this bronze statue reaching to Olympus, not only over the seas but also on land did they kindle the lovely torch of freedom and independence. For to the descendants of Herakles belongs dominion over sea and land, the base pedestal was said to be at least 18 metres in diameter, and either circular or octagonal. The feet were carved in stone and covered with bronze plates riveted together. Eight forged iron bars set in a horizontal position formed the ankles. Individually cast curved bronze plates 60 inches square with turned-in edges were joined together by rivets through holes formed during casting to form a series of rings, the statue snapped at the knees and fell over onto the land. Ptolemy III offered to pay for the reconstruction of the statue, but the oracle of Delphi made the Rhodians afraid that they had offended Helios, and they declined to rebuild it
17.
Citadel
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A citadel is the core fortified area of a town or city. It may be a fortress, castle, or fortified center, the term is a diminutive of city and thus means little city, so called because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core. It is positioned to be the last line of defense, should the enemy breach the other components of the fortification system, a citadel is also a term of the third part of a medieval castle, with higher walls than the rest. It was to be the last line of defense before the keep itself, some of the oldest known structures which have served as citadels were built by the Indus Valley Civilization, harappan, where the citadel represented a centralised authority. The main citadel in Indus Valley was almost 12 meters tall, the purpose of these structures, however, remains debated. Though the structures found in the ruins of Mohenjo-daro were walled, rather, they may have been built to divert flood waters. The most well-known is the Acropolis of Athens, but nearly every Greek city-state had one – the Acrocorinth famed as a strong fortress. In a much later period, when Greece was ruled by the Latin Empire, rebels who took power in the city but with the citadel still held by the former rulers could by no means regard their tenure of power as secure. One such incident played an important part in the history of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire, the Hellenistic garrison of Jerusalem and local supporters of the Seleucids held out for many years in the Acra citadel, making Maccabean rule in the rest of Jerusalem precarious. When finally gaining possession of the place, the Maccabeans pointedly destroyed and razed the Acra, a city where the citadel held out against an invading army was not considered conquered. In the Philippines The Ivatan people of the islands of Batanes often built fortifications to protect themselves during times of war. They built their so-called idjangs on hills and elevated areas. These fortifications were likened to European castles because of their purpose. Usually, the entrance to the castles would be via a rope ladder that would only be lowered for the villagers. In time of war the citadel in many cases afforded retreat to the living in the areas around the town. For example, during the Dutch Wars of 1664-67, King Charles II of England constructed a Royal Citadel at Plymouth, barcelona had a great citadel built in 1714 to intimidate the Catalans against repeating their mid-17th- and early-18th-century rebellions against the Spanish central government. A similar example is the Citadella in Budapest, Hungary, the Citadelle of Québec still survives as the largest citadel still in official military operation in North America. It is home to the Royal 22nd Regiment of Canada, citadels since the mid 20th century, are commonly military command and control centres built to resist attack commonly aerial or nuclear bombardment. The Military citadels under London such as the underground complex beneath the Ministry of Defense called Pindar is one such example
18.
Kalymnos
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Kalymnos, is a Greek island and municipality in the southeastern Aegean Sea. It belongs to the Dodecanese and is located to the west of the peninsula of Bodrum, Kalymnos lies between two and five hours away by sea from Rhodes. In 2011 the island had a population of 16,001, making it the third most populous island of the Dodecanese, after Kos and Rhodes. It is known in Greece for the affluence of much of its population, the island was known as Càlino in Italian and Kilimli or Kelemez in Turkish. The island is rectangular in shape, with a length of 21 km and a width of 13 km. Moreover, on the side there is a peninsula which stretches in a northwest direction. Kalymnos is mainly mountainous with complicated topography, there are three main chains going from W-NW to E-SE, and a fourth which innervates the peninsula. The coastline is irregular, with many sheltered coves. There are some springs, one them being thermal. The soil is mainly limestone-based, but in the valleys there is a bank of volcanic tuff. The island is barren, except for the two fertile valleys of Vathi and Pothia, where olives, oranges and vines are grown. Earthquakes are a frequent occurrence around Kalymnos, Kalymnos is neighbored by the small island of Telendos, which was once part of Kalymnos, but split off after a major earthquake in 554 AD and is now separated from Kalymnos by a channel of water. Between Kalymnos and Kos lies the islet of Pserimos which is inhabited and, near Pserimos lies the islet of Platí, and about 5 km to the NE lies the small islet of Kalolimnos. Inhabited originally by Carians, in Antiquity Kalymnos depended on Kos, in the Middle Ages it was under the influence of the Byzantine Empire, and during the 13th century it was used by the Venetian Republic as a naval base. In 1310 it came under the control of the Knights of Rhodes, and later was attacked by the Ottomans. Unlike Rhodes and Kos, during the Ottoman period there was no Turkish immigration to Kalymnos, on May 12,1912, during the Italo-Turkish War, Kalymnos was occupied by Italian sailors of the Regia Marina. Italy took control of the island along with other islands of the Dodecanese until 1947, the majority of Kalymnians are Greek Orthodox. The island belongs to that part of Greece that does not depend on the Church of Greece
19.
Kastellorizo
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Kastellorizo or Castellorizo is a Greek island and municipality located in the southeastern Mediterranean. It lies roughly 2 kilometres off the south coast of Turkey, about 570 km southeast of Athens and 125 km east of Rhodes, Kastellorizo is part of the Rhodes regional unit. The islands official name, Megisti means biggest or greatest, but at only 11.98 km2 in area, the name, however, refers to the fact that it is the largest of the small archipelago. This name was used in antiquity, but is now used in Greek. There are several hypotheses about the origin of this name, kastello derives from the Italian word castello, meaning castle. There is some argument on the part of the name. Rizo being a corruption of the word Rhoge, one of the ancient appellations of the island of Ro. If this is correct, the modern name is actually an amalgam of the separate island names Castello. Rizo being the actual Greek word rizon meaning root, as researched by Greek Historian I. M. Hatzifotis, Kastellorizo is the easternmost Greek island and is situated in the Eastern Mediterranean. It lies about 2 km from the Anatolian coastal town of Kaş, Cyprus is about 280 km to the south-east. It is six kilometres long and three wide, with a surface of 9.2 square kilometres. It has a shape, and is oriented from NE to SW. The island features three capes, Agios Stefanos, Nifti and Pounenti, between the first two there is a wide and accommodating bay, the main harbor, where one finds the only town on the island. Cape Agios Stefanos, the nearest to Anatolia, is 2250m south of the modern Turkish town of Kaş, cape Nifti lies some greater distance from the Anatolian coast. The island is mountainous, with high and steep coastlines, which become difficult to access moving west. The soil is composed of limestone, and produces small amounts of olives, grapes. On the island there is no source of drinking water, the Municipality of Megísti includes the offshore islands of Ro and Strongyli as well as several smaller islets. It has a land area of 11.978 square kilometres
20.
Ottoman Empire
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After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror, at the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries. With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, while the empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, this view is no longer supported by the majority of academic historians. The empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society, however, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind that of their European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian Empires. While the Empire was able to hold its own during the conflict, it was struggling with internal dissent. Starting before World War I, but growing increasingly common and violent during it, major atrocities were committed by the Ottoman government against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. The word Ottoman is an anglicisation of the name of Osman I. Osmans name in turn was the Turkish form of the Arabic name ʿUthmān, in Ottoman Turkish, the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿOsmānīye, or alternatively ʿOsmānlı Devleti. In Modern Turkish, it is known as Osmanlı İmparatorluğu or Osmanlı Devleti, the Turkish word for Ottoman originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century, and subsequently came to be used to refer to the empires military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term Turk was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population, the term Rūmī was also used to refer to Turkish-speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond. In Western Europe, the two names Ottoman Empire and Turkey were often used interchangeably, with Turkey being increasingly favored both in formal and informal situations and this dichotomy was officially ended in 1920–23, when the newly established Ankara-based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name. Most scholarly historians avoid the terms Turkey, Turks, and Turkish when referring to the Ottomans, as the power of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman, osmans early followers consisted both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along the Sakarya River and it is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbours, due to the scarcity of the sources which survive from this period. One school of thought which was popular during the twentieth century argued that the Ottomans achieved success by rallying religious warriors to fight for them in the name of Islam, in the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over Anatolia and the Balkans. Osmans son, Orhan, captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in 1326 and this conquest meant the loss of Byzantine control over northwestern Anatolia. The important city of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387, the Ottoman victory at Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe
21.
Victor Emmanuel III of Italy
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Victor Emmanuel III was the King of Italy from 29 July 1900 until his abdication on 9 May 1946. In addition, he claimed the thrones of Ethiopia and Albania as Emperor of Ethiopia and King of the Albanians, during his long reign, which began after the assassination of his father Umberto I, the Kingdom of Italy became involved in two World Wars. His reign also encompassed the birth, rise, and fall of Italian Fascism, Victor Emmanuel abdicated his throne in 1946 in favour of his son Umberto II, hoping to strengthen support for the monarchy against an ultimately successful referendum to abolish it. He then went in exile to Alexandria, Egypt, where he died and was buried the following year. He was called by the Italians Il Re soldato for having led his country during both the wars, and, after Italys victory in the First World War Il Re vittorioso. He was also nicknamed Sciaboletta due to his height of 1.53 m, Victor Emmanuel was born in Naples, Italy. He was the child of Umberto I, King of Italy. Margherita was the daughter of the Duke of Genoa, from birth until his accession, Victor Emmanuel was known by the title of the Prince of Naples. On 24 October 1896, Prince Victor Emmanuel married Princess Elena of Montenegro, on 29 July 1900, at the age of 30, Victor Emmanuel acceded to the throne upon his fathers assassination. The only advice that his father Umberto ever gave his heir was Remember, to be a king, all you need to know is how to sign your name, read a newspaper, and mount a horse. His early years showed evidence that, by the standards of the Savoy monarchy, indeed, even though his father was killed by an anarchist, the new King showed a commitment to constitutional freedoms. Though parliamentary rule had been established in Italy, the Statuto Albertino, or constitution. For instance, he had the right to appoint the Prime Minister even if the individual in question did not command majority support in the Chamber of Deputies, when World War I began, Italy at first remained neutral, despite being part of the Triple Alliance. However, in 1915, Italy signed several secret treaties committing her to enter the war on the side of the Triple Entente, most of the politicians opposed war, however, and the Italian Chamber of Deputies forced Prime Minister Antonio Salandra to resign. At this juncture, Victor Emmanuel declined Salandras resignation and personally made the decision for Italy to enter the war and he was well within his rights to do so under the Statuto. Popular demonstrations in favor of the war were staged in Rome, with 200,000 gathering on 16 May 1915 and it was at this time, the period of World War I, that the King enjoyed the genuine affection of the majority of his people. Still, during the war he received about 400 threatening letters from people of social background. The economic depression which followed World War I gave rise to much extremism among Italys sorely tried working classes and this caused the country as a whole to become politically unstable
22.
Benito Mussolini
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Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician, journalist, and leader of the National Fascist Party, ruling the country as Prime Minister from 1922 to 1943. He ruled constitutionally until 1925, when he dropped all pretense of democracy, known as Il Duce, Mussolini was the founder of Italian Fascism. In 1912 Mussolini was the member of the National Directorate of the Italian Socialist Party. Mussolini was expelled from the PSI for withdrawing his support for the stance on neutrality in World War I. He served in the Royal Italian Army during the war until he was wounded and discharged in 1917, Mussolini denounced the PSI, his views now centering on nationalism instead of socialism, and later founded the fascist movement. Following the March on Rome in October 1922 he became the youngest Prime Minister in Italian history until the appointment of Matteo Renzi in February 2014, within five years he had established dictatorial authority by both legal and extraordinary means, aspiring to create a totalitarian state. Mussolini remained in power until he was deposed by King Victor Emmanuel III in 1943, a few months later, he became the leader of the Italian Social Republic, a German client regime in northern Italy, he held this post until his death in 1945. Mussolini had sought to delay a major war in Europe until at least 1942, however, Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, resulting in declarations of war by France and the United Kingdom and starting World War II. In the summer of 1941 Mussolini sent Italian forces to participate in the invasion of the Soviet Union, and war with the United States followed in December. On 24 July 1943, soon after the start of the Allied invasion of Italy, the Grand Council of Fascism voted against him, on 12 September 1943, Mussolini was rescued from prison in the Gran Sasso raid by German special forces. In late April 1945, with total defeat looming, Mussolini attempted to escape north and his body was then taken to Milan, where it was hung upside down at a service station for public viewing and to provide confirmation of his demise. Mussolini was born in Dovia di Predappio, a town in the province of Forlì in Romagna on 29 July 1883. During the Fascist era, Predappio was dubbed Duces town, pilgrims went to Predappio and Forlì, to see the birthplace of Mussolini. His father, Alessandro Mussolini, was a blacksmith and a Socialist, while his mother, Benito was the eldest of his parents three children. His siblings Arnaldo and Edvige followed, as a young boy, Mussolini would spend some time helping his father in his smithy. His fathers political outlook combined views of anarchist figures like Carlo Cafiero and Mikhail Bakunin, the military authoritarianism of Garibaldi, in 1902, at the anniversary of Garibaldis death, Benito Mussolini made a public speech in praise of the republican nationalist. The conflict between his parents about religion meant that, unlike most Italians, Mussolini was not baptized at birth, as a compromise with his mother, Mussolini was sent to a boarding school run by Salesian monks. After joining a new school, Mussolini achieved good grades, in 1902, Mussolini emigrated to Switzerland, partly to avoid military service
23.
Treaty of Peace with Italy, 1947
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The Treaty of Peace with Italy was signed on 10 February 1947 between Italy and the victorious powers of World War II, formally ending hostilities. It came into effect on 15 September 1947. On 24 December 1951 Libya declared its independence as the United Kingdom of Libya, as provided by Annex XI of the Treaty, upon the recommendation of the United Nations General Assembly in Resolution 390 of 2 December 1950, Eritrea was federated with Ethiopia on 11 September 1952. Eritrea gained its independence from Ethiopia de facto on 24 May 1991, Italian Somaliland was under British administration until 1949 when it became a United Nations Trust Territory under Italian administration. Italian Somaliland combined with British Somaliland on 1 July 1960 and together became the Somali Republic. The reparations were to be paid in goods and services over a seven-year period, articles 47 and 48 called for the demolition of all permanent fortifications along the Franco-Italian and Yugoslav-Italian frontier. Italy was banned from possessing, building or experimenting with atomic weapons, guided missiles, guns with a range of over 30 km, the military of Italy was limited in size. Italy was allowed a maximum of 200 heavy and medium tanks, former officers and non-commissioned officers of the Blackshirts and the National Republican Army were barred from becoming officers or non-commissioned officers in the Italian military. Some warships were awarded to the governments of the Soviet Union, the United States, Italy was ordered to scuttle all its submarines and was banned from acquiring new battleships, submarines and aircraft carriers. The navy was limited to a force of 25,000 personnel. The Italian army was limited to a size of 185,000 personnel plus 65,000 Carabinieri for a total of 250,000 personnel. The Italian air force was limited to 200 fighters and reconnaissance aircraft plus 150 transport, air-rescue, training, the number of air force personnel was limited to 25,000. Article 17 of the treaty banned Fascist organizations in Italy, a subsequent annex to the treaty provided for the cultural autonomy of the German minority in South Tyrol. Paris Peace Treaties,1947 Full text of the treaty
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Paris Peace Treaties, 1947
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The Paris Peace Treaties were signed on 10 February 1947, as the outcome of the Paris Peace Conference, held from 29 July to 15 October 1946. The victorious wartime Allied powers negotiated the details of peace treaties with minor Axis powers, namely Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Finland, following the end of World War II in 1945. The treaties allowed Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Finland to resume their responsibilities as sovereign states in international affairs, no penalties were to be visited on nationals because of wartime partisanship for the Allies. Italy lost its colonies, Italian East Africa and Italian Libya in North Africa, in the peace treaty, Italy recognized the independence of Albania. Italy also lost its concession in Tianjin, which was turned over to China, Italy had to cede most of Istria, including the provinces of Fiume, Zara, and most of Gorizia and Pola to Yugoslavia. Italy also had to cede to Yugoslavia all islands in the eastern Adriatic, the Dodecanese Islands were ceded to Greece. The border with France was slightly modified in favor of France, mostly in uninhabited Alpine area, except for the Tende valley, the border with France did not change since 1860. Finland was restored to the borders of 1 January 1941, except for the province of Petsamo. However, this sympathy had been eroded by Finlands pragmatist collaboration with Nazi Germany during the war years from 1941 to 1944. During this time, Finland not only recaptured territory it had lost in 1940 and this prompted the United Kingdom to declare war on Finland in December 1941, further weakening political support in the West for the country. Hungary was restored to its borders before 1938 and this meant restoring the southern border with Yugoslavia, as well as declaring the First and Second Vienna Awards null and void, cancelling Hungarys gains from Czechoslovakia and Romania. Furthermore, three villages situated south of Bratislava were also transferred to Czechoslovakia, Romania was restored to the borders of 1 January 1941, with the exception of the border with Hungary giving Northern Transylvania back to Romania. This confirmed the 1940 loss of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union and the Treaty of Craiova, the war reparation problem proved to be one of the most difficult arising from post-war conditions. In the cases of Romania and Hungary, the terms as set forth in their armistices were relatively high and were not revised. $300,000,000 Finnish war reparations to the Soviet Union $300,000,000 from Hungary, $200,000,000 to the Soviet Union, $100,000,000 to Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. $300,000,000 from Romania to the Soviet Union, $70,000,000 from Bulgaria, $45,000,000 to Greece, the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia did not lead to any renegotiation of the Paris Peace Treaties. However, in 1990 Finland unilaterally cancelled the restrictions the treaty had placed on its military, Paris Peace Conference Proceedings United States Department of State Foreign relations of the United States,1946. Paris Peace Conference Documents United Nations Treaty Series volume 49, paris-WWII Peace Conference-1946, Settling Romanias Western Frontiers, at the Honorary Consulate of Romania in Boston, has pictures of the Romanian delegation
25.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
26.
Dodecanese
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The Dodecanese are a group of 15 larger plus 150 smaller Greek islands in the southeastern Aegean Sea, off the coast of Asia Minor, of which 26 are inhabited. Τhis island group generally defines the limit of the Sea of Crete. They belong to the wider Southern Sporades island group, the most historically important and well-known is Rhodes, which has been the areas dominant island since Antiquity. Of the others, Kos and Patmos are historically the more important, the nine are Agathonisi, Astypalaia, Kalymnos, Karpathos, Kasos, Leipsoi, Leros, Nisyros, Symi, Tilos. Other islands in the chain include Alimia, Arkoi, Chalki, Farmakonisi, Gyali, Kinaros, Levitha, Marathos, Nimos, Pserimos, Saria, Strongyli, Syrna, since Antiquity, these islands formed part of the group known as the Southern Sporades. The name Dōdekanēsos first appears in Byzantine sources in the 8th century, however it was not applied to the current island group, but to the twelve Cyclades islands clustered around Delos. The name may indeed be of far earlier date, and modern historians suggest that a list of 12 islands given by Strabo was the origin of the term. The term remained in use throughout the period and was still used for the Cyclades in both colloquial usage and scholarly Greek-language literature until the 18th century. The transfer of the name to the present-day Dodecanese has its roots in the Ottoman period, the place of the latter two was taken by Kos and Rhodes, bringing the number of the major islands under Italian rule back to twelve. Thus, when the Greek press began agitating for the cession of the islands to Greece in 1913, the islands joined Greece in 1947 as the Governorate-General of the Dodecanese, since 1955 the Dodecanese Prefecture. The Dodecanese have been inhabited since prehistoric times, in the Neopalatial period on Crete, the islands were heavily Minoanized. Following the downfall of the Minoans, the islands were ruled by the Mycenaean Greeks from circa 1400 BC and it is in the Dorian period that they began to prosper as an independent entity, developing a thriving economy and culture through the following centuries. By the early Archaic Period Rhodes and Kos emerged as the islands in the group. Together with the island of Kos and the cities of Knidos and Halicarnassos on the mainland of Asia Minor and this development was interrupted around 499 BC by the Persian Wars, during which the islands were captured by the Persians for a brief period. Following the defeat of the Persians by the Athenians in 478 BC, when the Peloponnesian War broke out in 431 BC, they remained largely neutral although they were still members of the League. By the time the Peloponnesian War ended in 404 BC, the Dodecanese were mostly removed from the larger Aegean conflicts, and had begun a period of relative quiet and prosperity. Other islands in the Dodecanese also developed into significant economic and cultural centers, most notably, however, the Peloponnesian War had so weakened the entire Greek civilizations military strength that it lay open to invasion. In 357 BC, the islands were conquered by the king Mausolus of Caria, following the death of Alexander, the islands, and even Rhodes itself, were split up among the many generals who contended to succeed him
27.
European Economic Community
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The European Economic Community was a regional organisation which aimed to bring about economic integration among its member states. It was created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957, upon the formation of the European Union in 1993, the EEC was incorporated and renamed as the European Community. In 2009 the ECs institutions were absorbed into the EUs wider framework and it gained a common set of institutions along with the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Atomic Energy Community as one of the European Communities under the 1965 Merger Treaty. In 1993, a single market was achieved, known as the internal market, which allowed for the free movement of goods, capital, services. In 1994, the market was formalised by the EEA agreement. This agreement also extended the market to include most of the member states of the European Free Trade Association. Upon the entry into force of the Maastricht Treaty in 1993 and this was also when the three European Communities, including the EC, were collectively made to constitute the first of the three pillars of the European Union, which the treaty also founded. The EEC was also known as the Common Market in the English-speaking countries and sometimes referred to as the European Community even before it was renamed as such in 1993. In 1951, the Treaty of Paris was signed, creating the European Coal and this was an international community based on supranationalism and international law, designed to help the economy of Europe and prevent future war by integrating its members. In the aim of creating a federal Europe two further communities were proposed, a European Defence Community and a European Political Community. While the treaty for the latter was being drawn up by the Common Assembly, the ECSC parliamentary chamber, after the Messina Conference in 1955, Paul Henri Spaak was given the task to prepare a report on the idea of a customs union. The so-called Spaak Report of the Spaak Committee formed the cornerstone of the negotiations at Val Duchesse castle in 1956. Together with the Ohlin Report the Spaak Report would provide the basis for the Treaty of Rome, in 1956, Paul Henri Spaak led the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom at the Val Duchesse castle, which prepared for the Treaty of Rome in 1957. The conference led to the signature, on 25 March 1957, the resulting communities were the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community. These were markedly less supranational than the communities, due to protests from some countries that their sovereignty was being infringed. The first formal meeting of the Hallstein Commission, was held on 16 January 1958 at the Chateau de Val-Duchesse, the EEC was to create a customs union while Euratom would promote co-operation in the nuclear power sphere. The EEC rapidly became the most important of these and expanded its activities, one of the first important accomplishments of the EEC was the establishment of common price levels for agricultural products. In 1968, internal tariffs were removed on certain products, another crisis was triggered in regard to proposals for the financing of the Common Agricultural Policy, which came into force in 1962
28.
European Union
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The European Union is a political and economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe. It has an area of 4,475,757 km2, the EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states. Within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished, a monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002, and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency. The EU operates through a system of supranational and intergovernmental decision-making. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community, the community and its successors have grown in size by the accession of new member states and in power by the addition of policy areas to its remit. While no member state has left the EU or its antecedent organisations, the Maastricht Treaty established the European Union in 1993 and introduced European citizenship. The latest major amendment to the basis of the EU. The EU as a whole is the largest economy in the world, additionally,27 out of 28 EU countries have a very high Human Development Index, according to the United Nations Development Programme. In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, through the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the EU has developed a role in external relations and defence. The union maintains permanent diplomatic missions throughout the world and represents itself at the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G7, because of its global influence, the European Union has been described as an emerging superpower. After World War II, European integration was seen as an antidote to the nationalism which had devastated the continent. 1952 saw the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, the supporters of the Community included Alcide De Gasperi, Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, and Paul-Henri Spaak. These men and others are credited as the Founding fathers of the European Union. In 1957, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany signed the Treaty of Rome and they also signed another pact creating the European Atomic Energy Community for co-operation in developing nuclear energy. Both treaties came into force in 1958, the EEC and Euratom were created separately from the ECSC, although they shared the same courts and the Common Assembly. The EEC was headed by Walter Hallstein and Euratom was headed by Louis Armand, Euratom was to integrate sectors in nuclear energy while the EEC would develop a customs union among members. During the 1960s, tensions began to show, with France seeking to limit supranational power, Jean Rey presided over the first merged Commission. In 1973, the Communities enlarged to include Denmark, Ireland, Norway had negotiated to join at the same time, but Norwegian voters rejected membership in a referendum
29.
Andreas Papandreou
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Andreas Georgios Papandreou was a Greek economist, a socialist politician and a dominant figure in Greek politics. The son of Georgios Papandreou, Andreas was a Harvard-trained academic and he served two terms as prime minister of Greece. His assumption of power in 1981 influenced the course of Greek political history, in a poll conducted by Kathimerini in 2007, 48% of those polled called Papandreou the most important Greek Prime Minister. In the same poll, the first four years of Papandreous government after Metapolitefsi were voted as the best government Greece ever had, Papandreou was born on the island of Chios, Greece, the son of Zofia Mineyko and the leading Greek liberal politician George Papandreou. His maternal grandfather was Polish-born public figure Zygmunt Mineyko, and his grandmother was Greek. Before university, he attended Athens College a leading school in Greece. He attended the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens from 1937 until 1938 when, during the Fascist Metaxas dictatorship, following representations by his father, he was allowed to leave for the US. In 1943, Papandreou received a PhD degree in economics from Harvard University and he returned to Harvard in 1946 and served as a lecturer and associate professor until 1947. In 1948, he entered into a relationship with University of Minnesota journalism student Margaret Chant, born in 1924, daughter of Douglas Chant and wife Hulda Pfund. After Chant obtained a divorce, and after his own divorce from Christina Rasia, his first wife, Papandreou and they had three sons and a daughter. Papandreou also had, with Swedish actress and TV presenter Ragna Nyblom, an out of wedlock, Emilia Nyblom. Papandreou returned to Greece in 1959, where he headed an economic development research program, in 1960, he was appointed chairman of the board of directors, general director of the Athens Economic Research Center, and advisor to the Bank of Greece. In 1963, his father George Papandreou, head of the Center Union, Andreas became his chief economic advisor. He renounced his American citizenship and was elected to the Greek Parliament in the Greek legislative election,1964 and he immediately became Minister to the First Ministry of State. Papandreou took publicly a neutral stand on the Cold War and wished for Greece to be independent from the United States. He also criticized the presence of American military and intelligence in Greece. Constantine II of Greece refused to endorse this move and essentially forced George Papandreous resignation, Greece entered a period of political polarisation and instability which ended with the coup détat of 21 April 1967. When the Greek colonels led by Georgios Papadopoulos seized power in April 1967, gust Avrakotos, a high- ranking CIA officer in Greece who was close to the colonels who led the coup, advised them to shoot the motherfucker because hes going to come back to haunt you
30.
Kos
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Kos or Cos is a Greek island, part of the Dodecanese island chain in the southeastern Aegean Sea, off the Anatolian coast of Turkey. Kos is the third largest of the Dodecanese by area, after Rhodes and Karpathos, it has a population of 33,388, making it the second most populous of the Dodecanese, after Rhodes. The island measures 40 by 8 kilometres, and is 4 km from the coast of the ancient region of Caria in Turkey, administratively, Kos constitutes a municipality within the Kos regional unit, which is part of the South Aegean region. The principal town of the island and seat of the municipality is Kos town, the name Kos is first attested in the Iliad, and has been in continuous use since. Other ancient names include Meropis, Cea, and Nymphaea, the similar Istanbul, and Stimpoli, Crete. Under the rule of the Knights Hospitaller of Rhodes, it was known as Lango or Langò, in The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, the author misunderstands this, and treats Lango and Kos as distinct islands. In Italian, the island is known as Coo, a person from Kos is called a Koan in English. The word is also an adjective, as in Koan goods, Kos is in the Aegean Sea. Its coastline is 112 kilometres long and it extends from west to east, in addition to the main town and port, also called Kos, the main villages of Kos island are Kardamena, Kefalos, Tingaki, Antimachia, Mastihari, Marmari and Pyli. Smaller ones are Zia, Zipari, Platani, Lagoudi and Asfendiou, tourism is the main industry in Kos, the islands beaches being the primary attraction. The seaside village of Kardamena is a resort for young holidaymakers and has a large number of bars. Farming is the principal occupation, with the main crops being grapes, almonds, figs, olives. Cos lettuce may be here, but the name is unrelated. In Homers Iliad, a contingent of Koans fought for the Greeks in the Trojan War, in classical mythology, the island was visited by Heracles. The island was colonised by the Carians. The Dorians invaded it in the 11th century BC, establishing a Dorian colony with a contingent of settlers from Epidaurus. The other chief sources of the islands lay in its wines and, in later days. Its early history–as part of the religious-political amphictyony that included Lindos, Kamiros, Ialysos, Cnidus and Halicarnassus, at the end of the 6th century, Kos fell under Achaemenid domination but rebelled after the Greek victory at the Battle of Mycale in 479
31.
Thalia (Muse)
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Thalia, also spelled Thaleia, was the goddess who presided over comedy and idyllic poetry. In this context her name means flourishing, because the praises in her songs flourish through time and she was the daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the eighth-born of the nine Muses. According to pseudo-Apollodorus, she and Apollo were the parents of the Corybantes, other ancient sources, however, gave the Corybantes different parents. She was portrayed as a woman with a joyous air, crowned with ivy, wearing boots. Many of her statues also hold a bugle and a trumpet, Muses in popular culture Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell,1996, ISBN 978-0-631-20102-1. Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, media related to Thalia at Wikimedia Commons Theoi. com - Thaleia Warburg Institute Iconographic Database
32.
Polyhymnia
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Polyhymnia, also spelt Polymnia was in Greek mythology the Muse of sacred poetry, sacred hymn, dance, and eloquence as well as agriculture and pantomime. Her name comes from the Greek words poly meaning many and hymnos and she is depicted as very serious, pensive and meditative, and often holding a finger to her mouth, dressed in a long cloak and veil and resting her elbow on a pillar. Polyhymnia is also credited as being the Muse of geometry. In Bibliotheca historica, Diodorus Siculus wrote, Polyhymnia, because by her great praises she brings distinction to writers whose works have won for them immortal fame and she appears in Dantes Divine Comedy, Paradiso. Canto XXIII, line 56, and is referenced in works of fiction. In astrology, there are nine asteroids, each one named after a different Muse and this specific one is a main belt asteroid discovered by Jean Chacornac, a French astrologer, in 1854. On Mount Parnassus, there was a spring that was sacred to Polyhymnia and it was said to flow between two big rocks above Delphi, then down into a large square basin. The water was used by the Pythia, who were priests and priestesses, media related to Polyhymnia at Wikimedia Commons Primary sources and basic information concerning Polyhymnia Polyhymnia in painting Warburg Institute Iconographic Database
33.
Sovereign Military Order of Malta
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It was founded as the Knights Hospitaller circa 1099 in Jerusalem, Kingdom of Jerusalem, by the Blessed Gerard, making it the worlds oldest surviving chivalric order. It operated from Cyprus, Rhodes, Malta, over which it was sovereign until the French occupation, the order venerates as its patroness Mary, mother of Jesus, under the title Our Lady of Mount Philermos. The Order retains sovereignty under international law, including United Nations permanent observer status, issuing its own passports, currency, the orders military corps, three brigades, are stationed throughout Italy, liaisoned with the Italian Armed Forces. Through its worldwide relief corps, Malteser International, the order aids victims of disasters, epidemics. In several countries, including France, Germany and Ireland, local associations of the order are important providers of emergency services. In the ecclesiastical heraldry of the Roman Catholic Church, the Order of Malta is one of two orders whose insignia may be displayed in a clerical coat of arms. The shield is surrounded with a rosary for professed knights. Members may also display the Maltese cross behind their shield instead of the ribbon, in order to protect its heritage against frauds, the order has legally registered 16 versions of its names and emblems in some 100 countries. The birth of the dates back to around 1048. The Order of St. John of Jerusalem–the monastic community that ran the hospital for the pilgrims in the Holy Land–became independent under the guidance of its founder, by virtue of the Papal Bull, the hospital became an order exempt from the control of the local church. All the Knights were religious, bound by the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. The order thus added the task of defending the faith to that of its hospitaller mission, as time went on, the order adopted the white eight-pointed Cross that is still its symbol today. The eight points represent the eight beatitudes that Jesus pronounced in his Sermon on the Mount, when the last Christian stronghold in the Holy Land fell after the Siege of Acre in 1291, the order settled first in Cyprus. In 1310, led by Grand Master Fra Foulques de Villaret, in the early 14th century, the institutions of the Order and the knights who came to Rhodes from every corner of Europe were grouped according to the languages they spoke. Each Langue included Priories or Grand Priories, Bailiwicks, and Commanderies, the Order was governed by its Grand Master, the Prince of Rhodes, and its Council. The senior positions of the Order were given to representatives of different Langues, after six months of siege and fierce combat against the fleet and army of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, the Knights were forced to surrender in 1523 and left Rhodes with military honours. The Reformation which split Western Europe into Protestant and Roman Catholic states affected the knights as well, in several countries, including England, Scotland and Sweden, the order was disestablished. In others, including the Netherlands and Germany, entire bailiwicks or commanderies experienced religious conversions and it was established that the order should remain neutral in any war between Christian nations
34.
Fort St. Angelo
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Fort Saint Angelo is a large bastioned fort in Birgu, Malta, located at the centre of the Grand Harbour. It was originally built in the period as a castle called the Castrum Maris or the Castello al Mare. The fort was garrisoned by the British from 1800 to 1979, the fort suffered considerable damage during World War II, but it was later restored. In 1998, the part of the fort was handed back to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Fort St. Angelo has been on Maltas tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 1998, the date of its original construction is unknown. However, there are claims of prehistoric or classical buildings near the site, due to some large ashlar blocks, there is also the mentioning in Roman texts of a temple dedicated to Juno/Astarte, probably in the vicinity of the fort. Its probable start as a fortification is the medieval period. In fact, in 1220 Hohenstaufen Emperor Frederick II started to appoint his own Castellani for Malta who needed a place to live, the remains of a tower that may date back to the 12th century can be traced among the more recent works. The first mention of Castrum Maris is to be found in documents from the 1240s when Paulinus of Malta was the lord of the island and later when Giliberto Abate made a census of the islands. Another reference to the castle is that from the short Angevin rule where documents list it again as Castrum Maris and it seems also that by 1274, the castle already had two chapels which are still there today. From the same year also a detailed inventory of weapons. From 1283 the Maltese islands were under Aragonese rule and the fortification was used by Castellani who were there to safeguard the interests of the Aragonese crown. In fact the Castellans did not have any jurisdiction outside the ditch of the fort, the Knights made this their primary fortification and substantially reinforced and remodelled it, including the cutting of the dry ditch to make it a moat and the DHomedes Bastion built by 1536. These works transformed the fort into a gunpowder fortification, Fort St Angelo withstood the Turks during the Great Siege of Malta, during which it succeeded in tearing apart a sea attack by the Turks on Senglea on 15 August 1565. In the aftermath of siege, the Knights built the fortified city of Valletta on Mount Sciberras on the other side of the Grand Harbour. In 1644, Giovanni de’ Medici proposed a new fort be constructed on Orsi Point, and he drew up plans for the proposed fort, but they were never implemented. It was not until the 1690s that the fort underwent major repairs. As a result, one can see his coat of arms above the main gate of the fort
35.
Grandmaster's Palace (Valletta)
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The Grandmasters Palace, officially known as The Palace, is a palace in Valletta, Malta. It was built between the 16th and 18th centuries as the palace of the Grand Master of the Order of St. John, who ruled Malta and it eventually became the Governors Palace, and it currently houses the Office of the President of Malta. Parts of the building, namely the Palace State Rooms and the Palace Armoury, are open to the public as a run by Heritage Malta. The Grandmasters Palace occupies a city block in the centre of Valletta and its façade is located opposite the Main Guard in St. Georges Square along Republic Street. The palace is also bounded by Archbishop Street, Old Theatre Street, when the Order of St. John established the new city of Valletta in 1566, the original intention was to built the palace of the Grand Master on high ground in the southern part of the city. In fact, present-day South Street was originally known as Strada del Palazzo, both of these buildings were built to designs of the Maltese architect Girolamo Cassar. In 1571, Grand Master Pierre de Monte moved the Orders headquarters to Valletta, and he lived in the house of Eustachio del Monte, the Council of the Order subsequently purchased the house, and in 1574 it began to be enlarged into a palace for the Grand Master. By this time, del Monte had died and he was succeeded as Grand Master by Jean de la Cassière, the Italian langue moved to a new auberge in 1579, and the original auberge was also incorporated into the palace. The Grandmasters Palace was built to Mannerist designs of Girolamo Cassar, the palace was modified and embellished by subsequent Grand Masters, which gave the building a Baroque character. The ceilings of the corridors were decorated with frescoes by Nicolau Nasoni in 1724. In the 1740s, Grand Master Manuel Pinto da Fonseca made extensive alterations to the building, pintos renovations included the embellishment of the façade, the opening of a second main entrance, and the construction of a clock tower in one of the courtyards. In the 1770s, the traveller Patrick Brydone wrote that, During the French occupation of Malta, the name was a reflection of the French ideas resulting from the revolution and part of the whole reformed establishment in Malta. The Grandmasters Palace became the residence of the Governor of Malta after Malta fell under British rule in 1800. A semaphore station was installed on the palace in the 1840s, parts of the building, including the hall housing the Palace Armoury, were hit by aerial bombardment during World War II, but the damage was subsequently repaired. The Grandmasters Palace was the seat of the Parliament of Malta from 1921 to 2015, Parliament met in the Tapestry Hall from 1921 to 1976, when it moved to the former armoury. The House of Representatives moved out of the Grandmasters Palace to the purpose-built Parliament House on 4 May 2015, following Maltas independence in 1964, the building became the seat of the Governor-General of Malta. It has housed the Office of the President of Malta since the office was established in 1974, parts of the building, namely the Palace State Rooms and the Palace Armoury, are open to the public as a museum run by Heritage Malta. The palace was included on the Antiquities List of 1925 and it is now a Grade 1 national monument, and it is also listed on the National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands
36.
Acropolis of Rhodes
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The Acropolis of Rhodes is an acropolis dating from the Classical Greek period 3 kilometers from the centre of Rhodes, in the island with the same name, Greece. The partially reconstructed part of the consists of the Temple of Apollo below which is a stadium. It is included in a park, Monte Smith, named for English Napoleonic admiral William Sidney Smith. The island of Rhodes is the largest of the Dodecanese, an group in the southeastern Aegean Sea. In 408 BC, near the end of the Peloponnesian War, admired for its beauty and luxury, the city flourished. After weathering a siege by Demetrios Poliorketes in 305-303 BC, Rhodes rallied and built the Colossus of Rhodes, the Colossus is known as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Following the great earthquake in 227 BC, which toppled the enormous harbor statue and devastated the city and it was later raided by Cassius in 42 BC, and never recovered. Another catastrophic earthquake in AD515 caused Rhodes to be reduced and confined to the area of Palais Polis, the present day Old Town. Over the next centuries, it was raided by the Persians and the Arabs, in their war with the Turks, the Italians occupied the Dodecanese islands in 1912, which were not liberated until 1945, at the end of World War II. At that time the British oversaw the islands until their incorporation into Greece 1948. Most recently, Rhodes has become a holiday destination for tourists. The original excavation was carried on by the Italian School of Archaeology at Athens from 1912-1945, following World War II, the Greek Archaeological Service took over excavation and restoration of the ruins. This included extensive reconstruction of the Temple Pythian Apollo, which was damaged by bombing. Excavation began in 1946, and continues today in the Acropolis archaeological park, which covers 12,500 square metres, the Acropolis is situated on the highest part of the city. The monuments were built on stepped terraces, with retaining walls. The temple was bounded by a stoa to the east and these caves were used for worship and recreational purposes. Smaller than the Temple of Athena Polias and Zeus Polieus, this structure boasts a similar east-west orientation, part of the northeast side of this porous peripteral temple has been restored. This small marble theatre held approximately 800 spectators, situated northwest of the Stadium, it is believed to have been used for musical performances and rhetoric lessons of prominent Rhodians
37.
Aquarium of Rhodes
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The Aquarium of Rhodes is a research centre, aquarium and museum in Rhodes, Greece. It was built in the 1930s, when the island was under the Italian rule and is administered by the National Centre of Marine Research. The building, an Art deco design by the Italian architect Armando Bernabiti, was constructed between 1934 and 1935, when it first started operations in 1937, it was named the Reale Istituto di Ricerce Biologiche di Rodi. Research here included the hydrology, sponges, and fisheries of the Aegean, when the island was handed back to Greece in 1945, the facility was operated as part of the Hellenic Hydrobiological Institute. Since 1963 it has known as the Hydrobiological Station of Rhodes. An exhibition area was added to the side of the building in 1971–72. The aquarium is in the basement of the building, and is a designed to look like an underwater cave. The tanks along each side of the corridor are filled with approximately 80,000 litres of filtered seawater, providing a natural environment for the residents. The displays include sea anemones and plants, octopuses, sea urchins, corals, bivalves, crabs, lobsters, sea turtles, dolphins, seals, mollusks, sharks, and many other fish. There is a holding facility for incoming specimens and organisms that need special handling. Media related to Museum of the Rhodes Aquarium at Wikimedia Commons Media related to Rhodes Aquarium at Wikimedia Commons Official website
38.
Hafiz Ahmed Agha Library
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Hafiz Ahmed Agha Library is an important historic Ottoman building in the medieval city of Rhodes in Greece, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The library was founded by Hafiz Ahmed Agha in 1793, Hafiz Ahmed Agha was born in the village of Asgourou,3 km to the south from the present center of the city of Rhodes, in the middle of the 18th century in a wealthy, established Ottoman family. He was educated in the Imperial Court and later became the Chief Equerry of the Sultan and he retired in 1789, but was reactivated and became a member of the regular delegations travelling to Mecca with the yearly presents of the sultan to the Sharif of Mecca. He died on such a travel time between 1800-1802. He founded this library for the public of his home town with 1995 manuscripts from the entire scope of Islamic science in 1793. The institution became a center of learning, Hafiz Ahmed Agha paid the librarians also for teaching the Arabic language, which was necessary for the reading of the texts. Presently there are 1256 manuscripts in the possession of the library, among the most valuables there is a Koran from 1540, the history of the Turkish siege of the city in 1522, and manuscripts with Persian miniatures. On the walls of there are old maps and engravings of the town, information tables in the Hafiz Ahmed Agha Library, Rhodes
39.
Kahal Shalom Synagogue
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The Kahal Shalom Synagogue is a Sephardic synagogue in La Juderia, the Jewish quarter of the city of Rhodes on the Greek island of Rhodes. It is the oldest synagogue in Greece today, there has been a Jewish presence in Rhodes for 2,300 years. They were, at times, persecuted by Romans, the Knights Hospitaller, during Ottoman rule, however, the Jews of Rhodes prospered, and many expelled Sephardim settled there, particularly in the city of Rhodes, where they built many synagogues. The Kahal Shalom Synagogue was constructed in 1577, and has been in use ever since, the synagogue and its worshipers prospered under Ottoman rule into the twentieth century. Kahal Shalom was the only of the four synagogues in La Juderia at the time to survive the bombing during the Second World War, most features of the Kahal Shalom Synagogue are typical of Sephardic and Ottoman synagogues. The tevah, or podium, from which the Torah is read, is in the center of the sanctuary, the floor is a mosaic using the black and white local stones used in pavements around Rhodes. An unusual feature of the temple is the fact there are two hekháls, on either side of the door leading into the interior courtyard. There is also a fountain in the used for handwashing by the Kohanim before reciting the priestly blessings. A number of plaques adorn the exterior and interior of the synagogue, most, primarily in Ladino, the language of the Sephardic community, and Hebrew are dedicated to those who maintained the synagogue. Another, in French, is dedicated to the members of the community who died during the Holocaust, currently, the synagogue has a museum detailing the history of the community. There are services held on holidays, and it is used for community events
40.
Suleymaniye Mosque (Rhodes)
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The Suleymaniye Mosque or the Mosque of Suleiman is a mosque originally built after the Ottoman conquest of Rhodes in 1522 and reconstructed in 1808. It was named by the Sultan Suleiman to commemorate his conquest of Rhodes and this mosque was the first mosque in the town of Rhodes, built soon after Ottomans besieged it and captured it in 1522. In 1808 the current building of mosque was built through the reconstruction of this first mosque, the most of the mosque was reconstructed using materials of the buildings which existed at the same place in the earlier period. The pillars of the outer arcade belonged to the Christian church, europa Nostra gave this mosque an honorary distinction in 2006
41.
Archangelos, Rhodes
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Archangelos is a town and a former municipality on the island of Rhodes, in the Dodecanese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Rhodes, Archangelos is located about 30 kilometers south of the town of Rhodes on the islands east coast at an elevation of 160 meters. Its population according to the 2011 census was 5,384 making it the fifth largest town of the island (after the capital Rhodes, the towns name derives from Archangel Michael who is also considered its patron. The municipal unit of Archangelos has an area of 115.375 km², and includes several other towns. Its total population was 7,615 at the 2011 census, numerous small settlements existed in the broader area of Archangelos during the Hellenistic era, others on the coast and others inland. Over time the settlements of the area were merged in one forming the town of Archangelos. Ruins of this fortress remain today, major economic resources include tourism, agriculture, stockbreeding and pottery. Pottery was always one of the occupations of the people of Archangelos. It is said that the dome of Hagia Sophia was built using bricks from Archangelos. In, church of the Saint Michael Archangel Nearby, castle of Saint George ruins cave of Koumellos Haraki Stegna, Rhodes Tsambika
Greece
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