Knights Street – Inns of the tongues

Information

The knights came from various European states and every state was called “Tongue”. They lived inside the Collachium, in the northern area of the medieval city and each tongue had its own inn.
Most of the inns of the tongues are situated on the street of the knights. Τhe inn of Auverne is seated in Argyrokastrou sq, the inn of England in Museum square, while the inn of Germany has not been identified.
Walking east – west direction, uphill the street of the Knights, on the north side, there is the inn of Italy, then the inn of France, one of the largest and most impressive buildings of the street, dated in 1509. The inn of Provence stands towards the top end of the street. Only a section of the façade, the magnificent portal and some parts of the ground floor have survived. Under the Turks it had been converted into a bath-house.
The inn of Spain is a large building situated opposite the inn of Provence, on the south side of the street of the knights, holding the escutcheons of Castile, Aragon, Granada, Navarre and Portugal within the same frame.
All the buildings in the north side of the street of the Knights have been reconstructed during the Italian occupation (1912-1947), to accommodate offices and consulates. The inn of the tongue of Spain was recently restored by the Hellenic ministry of culture to function as a museum and host cultural events.