Saint Nicholas Fortress

This guide to Saint Nicholas Fortress in Rhodes starts with the lighthouse overhead and works back to the tower Grand Master Zacosta raised at the tip of the Mandraki mole between 1464 and 1467, replacing a small church that once stood there. It follows the Ottoman fleet's arrival in 1480, when this squat tower, not the city walls, became their first target, and Grand Master d'Aubusson's rush down to the jetty to hold the line during the assault. It traces the earthquake that cracked the tower open again the following year, and the older marble worked into its walls, said to trace back to a lost Hellenistic monument nearby. Look closely at the masonry for the layered repairs stacked here across generations of grand masters.