Pierre d'Aubusson - Neratzia Castle (Kos island, Greece)
N 36° 53.814 E 027° 17.433
35S E 525886 N 4083474
Depicted marble CoA of Pierre d'Aubusson, Grand Master of the order of St. John of Jerusalem, decorates eastern outer wall of medieval Neratzia Castle in Kos town (Kos island, Greece).
Waymark Code: WMPJXT
Location: Greece
Date Posted: 09/10/2015
Views: 7
Depicted marble CoA of Pierre d'Aubusson, Grand Master of the order of St. John of Jerusalem, decorates eastern outer wall of medieval Neratzia Castle in Kos town (Kos island, Greece).
Pierre d'Aubusson (1423–1503) was a Grand Master of the order of St. John of Jerusalem (the Knights Hospitaller) and a zealous opponent of the Ottoman Empire. Pierre probably joined the Knights of St. John in 1444 or 1445 and then left for Rhodes. Pierre d'Aubusson was elected "Grand Prior" of the "Langue d'Auvergne" in early 1476. In June 1476, he was elected Grand Master of the Order, having been a very close associate of a previous Grand Master, Raymond Zacosta, and responsible for the repair and modernization of the fortifications of the city of Rhodes, the other castles of the Order on the islands of the Dodecanese (including Neratzia Castle), and the Château St. Pierre (formerly Halicarnasse, today Bodrum, Turkey).
The Neratzia Castle, situated at the entrance of the Kos Harbor, was built by the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem (the Knights Hospitaller) who ruled on the island Kos from 1314 to 1512. The inner Keep was built around the 14th century while the outer Keep dates from the end of the 15th / beginning of the 16th century.