Acandia Gate

Modern gate, also known as ʽKovaʼ Gate. The name derives from the name of the nearby bay, which was in the direction shipping took to get to Candia, i.e. Crete (or modern Heraklion). It was opened in 1935, during the Italian occupation of Rhodes, in the walls of the sector of the Italian tongue, roughly 60 metres northeast of the Bastion of Italy. The year before, a special Regulatory Plan for the medieval town had been drawn by architect Florestano di Fausto: besides the opening of the gate, it provided for new roads that would cut across the existing town plan, the demolition of buildings and the creation of modern squares,  projects that for the most part were not carried out.

The opening of the gate cut into three pieces the Embankment of Italy built by Aubusson between 1489 and 1503, to protect the southeast entrance to the medieval moat and the adjacent weak curtain. This embankment was of a more sophisticated plan than the others built by Aubusson: it had two sections joined at a wide angle, with a four-sided projection at the centre to provide flanking fire along their fronts; it heralded 16th-century developments in military architecture. The old moat and advance-wall were preserved at the rear of the embankment.

The Acandia Gate exposes in section successive phases of fortification, including the earliest move to strengthen the mid-15th century curtain with a revetment at the rear, an initiative of grand master Emery d'Amboise (1503-12). This would be continued along the length of the landward curtain up to the Amboise Gate by Carretto (1513-21).

Immediately behind this gate to the east, attached to the inner side of the curtain wall, is the preserved apse of the Greek medieval church of St. Panteleemon. It was built by Aubusson to commemorate the great victory over the Ottomans on the saint's feast day (27 July) in 1480. To the left of the apse archaeological excavation revealed a chapel of the adjacent Latin church of Our Lady of the Victory, which was probably destroyed in the siege of 1522. This church, still to be investigated, was also built by Aubusson to celebrate the miraculous intervention of the Virgin in this victory mentioned in written sources.