The site began as a Byzantine citadel in the late 7th century. The Knights Hospitaller took Rhodes in 1309 and repaired and greatly altered it in the first quarter of the 14th century as their headquarters. The article calls it one of the few examples of Gothic architecture in Greece. An earthquake damaged it in 1481.
In 1856 a gunpowder magazine near the Church of Saint John exploded after a lightning strike, destroying the church and much of the palace. Italian authorities rebuilt it from 1937 to 1940, with Vittorio Mesturino as architect, with little pre-Ottoman documentation. Critics cite historical inaccuracy.
It became a museum after Rhodes passed to Greece in 1948. It is part of the Medieval Old Town of Rhodes UNESCO site, designated in 1988.
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