The house of the Greek Bishop
Pindarou Street leads into what was known to the Jewish community as the ‘Calle Ancha’ (‘Broad Street’)—the heart of the Juderia—renamed today the ‘Square of the Hebrew Martyrs’ in memory of those who died in the Holocaust. The pleasant square, surrounded by balconied buildings, occupies the area of a mediaeval square named after another martyr of persecution—St Sebastian. The north side is dominated by the fine, 16th century ‘house of the Greek Bishop’ (sometimes arbitrarily referred to as the ‘Admiralty’). It is certainly a noble building; but the hypothesis that it was an arch-episcopal residence is based solely on the two inscriptions—one in Latin on the façade, the other in Greek above the stairs inside—which both read ‘Peace be with this house and all who dwell in it’. The importance of the mansion is emphasised by the ornate window-frames and the decisive moulding of the string-course which divides the functional ground floor of vaulted store-rooms from the elegant and perfectly symmetrical piano nobile above. From the fountain in front of the building, Aristotelous Street leads west back to Ippokratous Square—the hub of the commercial life of the walled city.
Rhodes Island is part of the Dodecanese Island Group, Greece.