|
Social stratificationIn Rhodes lived and worked Greeks and other nationalities that had arrived from West Europe. The upper social rank included the nobility, Greeks and Franks (owners of large properties), and the highest class of the Knights Hospitallers. Merchants and those who were involved in financial and shipping activities followed in the social stratification. The lower rank consisted of small merchants and artisans and the great mass of local artisans and workers, who were occupied in sugar and soap industries, in the harbour and in the construction works that the knights carried out in great extent, mainly from the 15th century onwards, under the menace of a possible Ottoman attack. The Greeks also acted as interpreters and commercial representatives of the knights. Therefore, during the rule of the knights, the city of Rhodes resembled an urban centre of West Europe. Building activity of the HospitallersThe building activity of the Order in the city of Rhodes had been continuous during the two centuries of their rule, seeing that the medieval city had suffered extended destructions by sieges (1440, 1480) and earthquakes (1481). The Knights city, as it was developed by the Order on the site of the former Byzantine one, had strong fortification and was divided by an interior wall into two parts: the collachium (or castrum or castellum), where dwelled the brethren - members of the Order and where its operations were based, and the burgus, where resided the rest of the city’s inhabitants and where the trade was carried out.
|