St. George's Bastion

The St. George’s Bastion features a massive, curved stone wall that projects outward from the medieval fortifications of Rhodes. Grand Master Pierre d’Aubusson ordered this bastion built in the late fifteenth century specifically to withstand the newer threat of gunpowder artillery. During the Ottoman siege of fourteen eighty, the cannonballs that struck this wall simply buried themselves in the thick earth fill behind the masonry. The stones held firm, and the Knights of Saint John successfully defended the harbor gate beneath them.