A Knight Hospitaller

A recent trip abroad didn't allow for as much cemetery wandering as I would have liked. But in that situation, an old castle will generally satisfy me.

The Archaeological Museum of Rhodes is housed in the former hospital of the Knights of Saint John. The full name was the Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, a medieval religious military order that began by overseeing hospitals for pilgrims to the Holy Land. The order was headquartered on the island of Rhodes from 1310 to 1522.

Inside the museum are displayed many stelae, or tomb slabs, from the era of the Knights. The one below is for the Knight Hospitaller Thomas Newport, who died on the 22nd of September, 1502.

Tomb slab of Sir Thomas Newport

Nearby the museum is a street lined with seven inns. Constructed in the early 1500s, each housed one of the seven languages from which the knighthood drew its members--at the time, England, France, Germany, and Italy, along with Aragon, Auvergne, and Provence. That way, the knights could be housed with others who spoke the same language.