The departure

The “Knights of Rhodos” sailed to Crete, together with 5,000 Rhodians who were willing to follow them, then to Italy, where they kept moving from town to town, until Charles V of Spain granted them Malta, where they settled in 1530, henceforth called “the Knights of Malta”. From 1830, after renouncing their martial character, they settled in Rome. Nowadays, the Order maintains hospitals in Germany, France, Belgium, England and Italy, while their actions tend to spread to America.

“Nothing in the world has ever been so gloriously lost as Rhodos” Charles V

Other facts and events

Disasters: As is the case with its whole history, Rhodos was struck by several strong earthquakes during the Middle Ages: in 1304, 1364, but the most destructive was that of 1481, with a magnitude of 7 on the Richter scale, which was also followed by a huge tsunami which completed its deadly work. Moreover, in 1476, a terrible deluge destroyed an important part of the city walls and caused whole villages to vanish in the mud forever.

The Monster: In a marsh of the area formerly called Malpasso – today’s Belpasso, a dragon is said to have lived, feasting on livestock, children and even adults. Several Knights lost their lives attempting to kill it. Finally, in 1342, Dieudonné de Gozon, having trained his dogs especially for the task and ignoring the prohibition issued by the Grantmaster Hélion de Villeneuve, killed it with great difficulty, an achievement which later led to his election as the next Grandmaster. Many historians believe that it was nothing but a crocodile, which accidentally reached the island from Egypt. The famous German poet Schiller wrote a long epic poem on this legend.