The Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes, or Kastello to the locals, exudes an air of stately permanence and is one of the few Gothic buildings in Greece. It was built in the 14th century by the Knights of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, a Catholic military order also known as the Hospitallers who used the island of Rhodes as a base for crusades into the Holy Land.

The castle's thick sandstone walls and crenelated towers were considered impenetrable and withstood numerous sieges, until Ottoman sultan Suleiman II turned up with 100,000 men in 1522.

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