Rhodes – the Old Town – the walls and within – Central Sector: south of Sokratous Str. and west of Pythagora Str. – Ippodamou Str.

Ippodámou Street
From Arionos Square, Achelaou Street leads north to Ippodamou (Hippodamou) Street, at a point almost opposite the 15th century church of Aghia Paraskevi. This is best seen from the courtyard in front of its west end, just off Xenophontos Street, from where the fine Gothic portal as well as the church’s profile and the pleasing relation ship of cruciform plan to octagonal drum are most easily appreciated. Xenophontos Street continues further south, joining Alexandri­dou Street at the mosque of Hamza Bey (currently under restoration). The building’s design is pure and simple, following a classic sequence used in Ottoman mosques—a square (cubic) prayer-hall surmounted by a dome, articulated externally by an octagonal drum.
   Further south on Ippodamou Street, the narrow en trance of Androni­kou Street (signed to the ‘Traditional Theatre’) leads east down to the entrance of the 15th century, monastic complex of St Nicholas. (This is also referred to, in different periods, as both St Bernardin and St Augustine, and was known in Ottoman times as the ‘Abdul Djelil Mescid’). The attractively walled and landscaped compound is entered through an ornate door way, bordered by a carved rope-design and surmounted by a framed niche, now lacking its dedicatory mural.

The present structure of the catholicon—two parallel vaulted aisles joined by two wide arches—appears to have been built over an Early Christian predecessor. The building was dam aged during the last war, and its vaults have been restored: small areas of late 15th century wall-painting with scenes relating to the life of St Nicholas have been rescued from the interior. The stump of the minaret remains to the west, and the exterior shows evidence of a vaulted portico which once extended from the south wall. Some of the monastic cells survive to the south east of the church.

At the southern extremity of Ippodamou Street, in the corner to the left facing the inside of the city walls, are the remains of buildings from the Roman Agora of Rhodes . The area is still too small to see clearly the context of what has been uncovered. It is a sunken area, paved and backed by an immaculately constructed stretch of limestone wall in isodomic blocks with beautifully hand-worked surfaces. One block with an inscription in Greek is visible in the centre of the second row, and the column bases of a stoa form a line below. At a much later date, the circular base of a windmill has been built at a higher level. This is the only area to have been uncovered of an agora complex which in the original plan of the city must have stretched for a considerable distance to both east and west of this point.