Mount Filerimos: Ruins, a Monastery and a Cross Above the Sea

Rising 267 metres just 15 kilometres outside Rhodes Town, Mount Filerimos looks out over the little town of Ialyssos and the bays of Ixia and Trianda. From the top, a panoramic view of the Aegean unfolds — turquoise near the shore, deepening to blue as it stretches toward the coast of Asia Minor. Thickly planted with cypresses, pines and other trees, the hill is a wonderful place for a long, unhurried walk through Rhodian nature, with a winding road leading up to the broad plateau at its summit.

Layers of history on one hilltop

This is also an important archaeological site. The Acropolis of ancient Ialyssos once stood here, complete with a temple dedicated to Athena Polias. As Christianity took root in Greece, the temple was converted into an early Christian three-aisled basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary — and the site became known for housing the icon of the Virgin of Filerimos. Attributed to St. Luke the Evangelist and brought to Rhodes in the 13th century, that icon had a remarkable journey: carried off by the Knights of St. John to France, then Italy, Malta and Russia, and since 2002 kept in the Blue Chapel of the National Museum of Montenegro.

Knights, excavations and reconstruction

Under the Knights a monastery was built here, ringed by cloisters, cells and chapels. After the monastery was destroyed in the Ottoman era, excavations from 1876 onward revealed Mycenaean pottery, a Doric foundation, and the ruins of the Hellenistic temple of Athena Polias. During the Italian occupation in the 1920s, a major reconstruction added a Via Crucis — a Calvary pathway running from the monastery to the south-western edge of the plateau, where an imposing cross was raised and stone altars with carved reliefs of the Passion were set along the way.

What you’ll find today

The monastery remains almost unchanged. From the entrance, a long stair climbs an avenue of cypresses and bougainvillea to the cloister and the temple foundations; the early Christian basilica and a small subterranean Byzantine church are open to visitors, and the setting is a favourite among Rhodians for wedding ceremonies. The Via Crucis, now arched over with pastel cedars, leads to the belvedere and the giant concrete cross erected there — and to one of the finest views on the island, dominated by distant Mount Attavyros. Keep an eye out, too, for the peacocks that roam the grounds.