Feraklos Castle

Feraklos Castle occupies a rocky hill on Rhodes' east coast, between the beaches of Agia Agathi and Charaki, facing the Anatolian shore. Its origins reach back to the middle Byzantine period, and possibly earlier. In the early fourteenth century Arab pirates used it as a stronghold, until the Knights of St John took it in September 1306, their first acquisition on the island. Neglected through the 1300s and reported ruinous by 1408, it was later repaired under grand masters Orsini (1467-1476) and Pierre d'Aubusson (1476-1503) to guard the fertile hinterland and nearby anchorages, becoming one of the Order's three principal Rhodian castles. The Turks captured it in 1523, several months after Rhodes city fell, following a long siege; it was then abandoned for good. The polygonal enceinte covers 1,700 square metres with a 680-metre perimeter and once held a substantial settlement. Byzantine masonry survives on the north, northwest and west sides, with plain square merlons. One gate and two fifteenth-century round towers remain to the south and southeast, and the arms of the Order and of Orsini appear in the seaward wall. A cistern still stands within.

Heritage data from Wikidata, compiled and verified in the Atika atlas.