The medieval town of Rhodes developed on part of the Hellenistic city in the northern tip of the island. Written sources mention -and archaeology has confirmed- the presence of a fortress protecting the population from enemy raids in the 7th century AD. The Early Byzantine town enclosed only a fraction of the later settlement, which in Hospitaller times was known as the Collachio. In the late 11th or the 12th century the walls expanded to enclose a suburb.

After the establishment of the ...