The town
of
KÓS
, home
to over
half of
the
island's
population,
spreads
in all
directions
from the
harbour,
with
most of
its
charm
residing
in
scattered
ancient
and
medieval
antiquities.
Apart
from the
Knights'
castle,
the
first
thing
you see
on
arrival,
there's
a wealth
of
Hellenistic
and
Roman
remains,
many of
which
were
only
revealed
by an
earthquake
in 1933,
and
excavated
subsequently
by the
Italians,
who also
planned
and laid
out the
"garden
suburb"
extending
east of
the
central
grid.
Elsewhere,
vast
areas of
open
space
alternate
with a
hotchpotch
of
Ottoman
monuments
and
later
mock-medieval
or Art
Deco
buildings.
The
castle
(Tues-Sun
8am-2.30pm;
¬2.40)
is
reached
via a
causeway
over its
former
moat,
now
filled
in and
planted
with
palms (hence
the
avenue's
Greek
name,
Finíkon).
The
existing
double
citadel,
which
was
built in
stages
between
1450 and
1514,
replaced
an
original
fourteenth-century
fort
deemed
not
capable
of
withstanding
advances
in
medieval
artillery.
A fair
proportion
of
ancient
Koan
masonry
has been
recycled
into the
walls,
where
the
escutcheons
of
several
Grand
Masters
of the
Knights
of St
John can
also be
seen.
Immediately
opposite
the
castle
entrance
stands
the
riven
trunk of
Hippocrates'
plane
tree,
its
branches
now
propped
up by
scaffolding
instead
of the
ancient
columns
of yore;
at seven
hundred
years of
age,
it's not
really
elderly
enough
to have
seen the
great
healer,
though
it has a
fair
claim to
being
one of
the
oldest
trees in
Europe.
Adjacent
are two
Ottoman
fountains
(a dry
hexagonal
one and
a
working
one in
an
ancient
sarcophagus)
and the
eighteenth-century
mosque
of
Hassan
Pasha
, also
known as
the
Loggia
Mosque
after
the
portico
on one
side;
its
ground
floor -
like
that of
the
Defterdar
mosque
on
Platía
Eleftherías
- is
taken up
by rows
of
shops.
Opposite
the
latter
stands
the
Italian-built
Archeological
Museum
(Tues-Sun
8am-2.30pm;
¬2.40),
with a
predictable
Latin
bias in
the
choice
of
exhibits.
Four
rooms of
statuary
are
arrayed
around
an
atrium
with a
mosaic
of
Hippocrates
welcoming
Asklepios
to Kós;
the most
famous
item,
purportedly
a statue
of
Hippocrates,
is
indeed
Hellenistic,
but most
of the
other
highly
regarded
works
(such as
Hermes
seated
with a
lamb)
are
Roman.
The
largest
single
section
of
ancient
Kós is
the
agora
, a
sunken,
free-access
zone
containing
a
confusing
jumble
of
ruins,
owing to
repeated
earthquakes
between
the
second
and
sixth
centuries
AD. More
comprehensible
are the
so-called
western
excavations,
lent
definition
by two
intersecting
marble-paved
streets
and the
Xystos
or
restored
colonnade
of a
covered
running
track.
In the
same
area lie
several
floor
mosaics,
such as
the
famous
one of
Europa
being
carried
off by
Zeus in
the form
of a
bull,
though
these
tend to
be
off-limits
or
hidden
under
protective
gravel.
To the
south,
across
Grigoríou
toú
Pémptou,
are a
garishly
restored
Roman-era
odeion
and the
Casa
Romana
(Tues-Sun
8.30am-3pm;
¬1.50),
a
third-century-AD
house
built
around
three
atria
with
surviving
patches
of
mos-aic
floors
showing
panthers
and
tigers,
plus
assorted
sea
creatures.
Kós
also
retains
a
thoroughly
commercialized
old
town
, lining
the
pedestrianized
street
running
from
behind
the
market
hall on
Platía
Eleftherías
as far
as
Platía
Dhiagóras
and the
isolated
minaret
overlooking
the
western
archeological
zone.
One of
the few
areas of
town to
survive
the 1933
earthquake,
today
it's
crammed
with
expensive
tourist
boutiques,
cafés
and
snack
bars.
About
the only
genuinely
old
thing
remaining
here is
a capped
Turkish
fountain
with a
calligraphic
inscription,
found
where
the
walkway
cobbles
cross
Odhós
Venizélou.
