Description of the attraction
The third siege of the Rhodes fortress in 1522 by the troops of the legendary Turkish Sultan Suleiman I ended with the complete expulsion from the island of the knights of the Order of St. John, who ruled in Rhodes for more than two centuries. The Turks settled outside the massive fortress walls of the medieval city, while the indigenous people were forced to settle outside of it. Considering that by the beginning of the 16th century the city was already densely built up, and the Turks did not really need to build new structures, small extensions were added to the existing buildings (for example, the traditional element of the Turkish house "sakhnisi"), Christian churches were turned in the mosque. True, several new mosques, as well as public baths, commercial premises, warehouses and some other structures were nevertheless built during this period.
The first temple erected in Rhodes after its conquest by the Ottoman Empire was the Suleiman the Magnificent Mosque, which received its name after, perhaps, the most famous ruler of the High Port, thanks to whose brilliant tactics the island was recaptured from the Knights Hospitallers. The mosque was built on the site of the destroyed Christian Church of the Holy Apostles. In 1808, a large-scale reconstruction of the mosque was carried out.
In 1912, the Italians gained control of the island, destroying most of the architectural evidence of the Turks' presence in Rhodes for nearly four centuries. The Suleiman the Magnificent Mosque is one of the few structures of the Turkish period that has not been destroyed and has survived to this day. It is a fine example of Ottoman architecture and an important historical monument.
