Lindos Acropolis: Discover Rhodes’ most spectacular historic landmark

If you’re heading to the Acropolis of Lindos for the first time, be ready for more than just another sightseeing stop, this is a place that stirs something in you. The walk up through Lindos’ winding lanes builds a quiet anticipation, and by the time you pass through the ancient gateway, you’ll likely feel your pulse quicken. Many visitors describe a sudden sense of energy at the summit, as if the air itself is charged with the memories of thousands of years.

Expect moments where you’ll simply stand still, caught between trying to take in the sweeping views and absorbing the atmosphere of the ruins around you. The wind up here is more than just a breeze, it seems to carry whispers of the past, wrapping you in the feeling that you’ve stepped directly into history. Whether you linger to trace the weathered stone or simply close your eyes and breathe it all in, the Acropolis of Lindos has a way of making the present moment feel both small and unforgettable.

While you will find the most important archaeological monuments at the Acropolis, interesting ruins are scattered at various points within the town and just outside it as well.

On the summit of the Lindos Acropolis are the ruins of the goddess Athena Lindia, temples from the 4th century BC As well as the Propylaea, the great Hellenistic Stoa and the Byzantine chapel of Saint John. In the time of the Knights of St. John, the castle is surrounded by sturdier fortress walls while the flowering period of Lindos extends as a naval power up to the 19th century.

According to myth, the cult of Athena Lindia was pre-Hellenic, although this is not borne out by the sporadic excavation finds. The history of the sanctuary begins in the Geometric period (9th c. BC). In the Archaoc period the tyrant of Lindos, Kleoboulos, revived the cult and built a temple, probably on the site of an earlier one. The Archaic temple had the same Doric tetrastyle amphiprostyle plan as the subsequent one.

The sanctuary was approached by a rough flight of steps. After it was burnt down in 342 BC, the present temple was built with the Propylaea and the monumental staircase. The Hellenistic stoa is later. In the 3rd c. BC the cult of Zeus Polieus was introduced, although Athena remained the principal deity of the sanctuary. In the Roman period the priest Aglochartos planted olive trees on the spot, and according to an inscription the Sanctuary of Psithyros was built close to the Temple of Athena (2nd c. AD).

 

The modern village of Lindos

The entrance to the village of Lindos is on the north, by its only square, which is now used as a carpark and has a large tree in the middle and a small fountain with many features from the period of the Knights. Rocks behind and above it recall ancient aqueducts. The graveyard is also at the entrance to the village, containing the church of Phaneromeni. A little beyond and below the square are the remains of the Moslem cemetery containing a few graves, whose typical grave markers have been demolished. The school has been moved to the side of the Megalo Yialo and the old building, beside the church of the Panayia, built in the neoclassical style, is now used by a local society for various cultural events. 

The streets of Lindos are a maze of continuous buildings, chiefly with interior courtyards. Most of the houses have flat roofs, but some variety of types can be seen among the buildings that have not been affected by time and changes of use and shape. The material used in their construction is either the local quarried poros stone or field stones which have been plastered and whitewashed. The houses of Lindos all have features in common, but they can be divided into different classes: simple ones resembling the country cottages of the island, houses with a courtyard, and mansions.

The most representative mansions are known by the names of their owners: the House of Papakonstantis (1626), of Kyriakos Koliodos, of Lefteris Makris (1700), of Krikis (1700), of Georgios, of Marietta Markoulitsa (1700), of Ioannidis, etc. With the arrival of neoclassicism in Greece at the end of the 19th c, Lindos, Like Rhodes town, adopted some of the new architectural features: large windows facing the street, two-storey houses with tiled saddle roofs and gable ends. The doors in the yard walls have jambs and lintels reminiscent of ancient temples. New houses were also built, which no longer had anything in common with the old mansions.