Insul Rhodus.

Title

Insul Rhodus.

Description

Decorative copper print map depicts the island of Rhodos and the neighbour island Chalki, Alimia and two decorative off shore ships.

ca. 1700

Artist

Anonymus

Historical Description

With the de facto division of the Roman Empire in 395, Rhodes became part of the Eastern Roman Empire, later called the Byzantine Empire. In the period after the First Crusade, Domenico Michiel, Doge of the Republic of Venice, on his way back from the Holy Land in 1124, plundered some Byzantine islands, including Rhodes. In 1306 the Genoese Vignolo de' Vignoli concluded a treaty with the knights of the Order of Saint John. In return for their help in implementing his plans, he assured the Knights of the Order, under their Grand Master Fulko de Villaret, of their own dominion on the island. Diplomatically secured by the support of the Pope, who would grant them Rhodes as perpetual property in 1307, the Knights of Saint John began their planned conquest of the island. Rhodes Town was strongly fortified by the Knights of St. John and defended against various attacks from the surrounding Muslim states. It was only under Suleiman the Lawgiver that the island fortress could be stormed by the Ottomans with heavy artillery after several months in 1522, whereupon the knights under Grand Master Philippe de Villiers de l'Isle-Adam capitulated and left the island on New Year's Day 1523. Immediately after the conquest, the Suleyman Pasha Mosque was built by Sultan Suleyman in 1523. The Ottoman rule lasted until May of the year 1912. During the Italian-Turkish War, troops of the Kingdom of Italy occupied Rhodes on 1912. This meant that Rhodes was not affected by the Greek-Turkish agreement of 1922, which provided for the forced resettlement of the Turks of Greece to Turkey and the Greeks of Asia Minor to Hellas. Since the Italian occupation in 1912, the entrance to the harbor is bordered by the statues of a stag (Elafos) and a hind (Elafina), which are considered the new emblem of Rhodes and, according to legend, stand where in ancient times the bases of the Colossus of Rhodes were located.