Within the walls of the Venetian castle of St. John, who occupied Rhodes from 1309 to 1523, lies the old town, the wordl’s best characterized well preserved old traditional inhabited town. With the Palace of the Grand Magister, the Great Hospital and the Street of the Knights, the Upper Town is one of the most beau- tiful urban ensembles of the Gothic period. In the Lower Town, Gothic architecture coexists with mosques, public baths and other buildings dating from the Ottoman period.