Rhodos, Greece, August 2021 - Jan & Jan-Jan's Rejseklubben

To the north of the church of St Mary of the Castle, the street passes underneath an arch into Argyrokastrou Square with the 16th century Inn of the Tongue of Auvergne to the right. The building was heavily restored in 1919, although the fine portal on the south façade is mostly original and bears an inscription with the date 1507. Through the arch and to the left, the western side of the cobbled square is bounded by a pleasing assemblage of buildings which comprised the First Hospital of the Knights, built under Grand Master Roger de Pins (arms on façade) between 1355 and 1365—one of the few buildings to survive intact from before the siege of 1480. The building is often referred to as the ‘Armoury’, since it was used as such by the Turks and probably also by the Knights after the commissioning of the new hospital building. Its most beautiful element is the main entrance façade which, although it has lost elements of its project stone porch, has a fine arched portal flanked by elegant lancet windows and surmounted by a moulded string course and crenellations. It was formerly the apse of the hospital chapel, and its present appearance is the result of modifications carried out under Fabrizio del Carretto at the beginning of the 16th century. In the reconstructed (1920) arcade to its south is the entrance to the Historical Institute and Library of the Dodecanese. In the centre of the square is a fountain composed of Byzantine marble elements, most of which constituted a 6th century baptismal font, decorated with crosses, which was found near the village of Arniha in the south of the island. It is surrounded by sizeable stone balls from the 1522 siege. The south wing of the building is occupied by the delightful Museum of Decorative Arts of the Dodecanese which contains little that is not of first-class quality (open daily, except Mon, 8.30–3). The objects displayed come from a wide variety of the islands and are exhibited not in rigid classifications but in decorative arrangements loosely in spired by the interiors which they once adorned.