Feraklos Castle

This guide to Feraklos Castle in Rhodes opens on the Knights of Saint John's capture of this clifftop fort from Arab pirates in 1306, and the ransom economy they built in its place. For two centuries, merchants seized at sea were marched up the hill and held in rock-cut cells until their partners paid to free them. Grand Masters Orsini and Pierre d'Aubusson later rebuilt the fortress after it fell into disrepair. Look down from the round towers by the gate over the anchorages the fort once watched.