The holy spaces in the urban fabric. Religious topography of Rhodes in the Hospitaller period

In the framework of the studies on the town of Hospitaller Rhodes, this text deals with the theme of the ecclesiastical architecture of Rhodes in relation to the urban transformations carried out by the Knights. A summary of the known information is proposed together with the contribution of further unpublished sources about the Greek and Latin churches in the fortified town. Afteran the analysis of architectural typologies of surviving buildings, offering an example of fusion between Byzantine and Western Gothic elements, the text analyses the condition of subordination of churches, from a monumental point of view, with respect to the urban fabric and to the expansion of town walls during the early modern age. Some elements of the organisation of the urban fabric in administrative and religious units are identified, even if the fragmentary state of sources does not allow for the moment to grasp it entirely, opening up to new questions on the appropriation of the urban space by the Hospitallers.