Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/197

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IN THE LEVANT.
157

resting on pillars. Adjoining the arcades are four long rooms, corresponding with the four sides of the quadrangle. These saloons and the open galleries are covered with a roof of cypress-wood in very fine condition. The four rooms were evidently for the sick, the open galleries for the convalescent to walk in. In one of the vaulted magazines in the basement, the chain which served to close the entrance to the harbour was formerly kept, and was seen by Ross in his visit in 1843. He describes it as 750 feet long, each link being 1 1/2 foot long. Since his visit it has been removed to Constantinople. The hospital was commenced by Villeneuve, and completed by the Grand Master Fluvian, and seems to have been well planned for its purpose. It now forms an excellent barrack.

In front of its eastern façade is an open space leading to the gate of St. Catherine. This gate is defended by two massive round towers, with deep projecting machicoulis. Over the gate is a relief in marble, representing St. Catherine, St. Peter, and St. Paid ; below, the arms of the Order and of D'Aubusson, and the inscription " Reverendus D. F. Petrus d'Aubussonius Rhodi mamus magister banc turrem et portas erexit."70

The inner wall, running from this gate across the town to a point south of the Amboise gate, and separating off the Castello from the lower town, has been already noticed. South of this line are the bazaar and Jews' quarter, and on the west a number of small tortuous streets inhabited by Turks. This part of the town in the fifteenth century was occu-