Nea Agora (New Market)
Nea Agora (New Market) features on the Gingerguide audio walk through Rhodes. Give it roughly ~30 min: enough to look, hear a two to three minute story on the spot, and ask the AI guide whatever the story leaves open.
- Type market
- Suggested visit ~30 min
- Rhodes Rhodes guide
About Nea Agora (New Market)
A seven-sided 1920s market hall built under Italian rule, its domes and Orientalist gateways wrapped around a lively arcaded courtyard that still trades in bread, fish and coffee.
The Nea Agora, or New Market, was built in the 1920s during the Italian administration of Rhodes as the town's central marketplace, at the edge of Mandraki opposite the harbour. It was designed by the Italian architect Florestano Di Fausto in an eclectic style mixing Orientalist, Moorish-medieval and Art-Deco elements, crowned with domes and monumental gateways. Unusually, its footprint is a seven-sided polygon, a heptagon that many visitors mistake for a hexagon or octagon.
The building was conceived as an architectural link between the medieval walled city, the new Italian town and the port of Mandraki. Its porticoed courtyard surrounds a central domed pavilion that originally served as the fish market. The exotic styling was a deliberate early-twentieth-century design choice rather than evidence of any earlier Ottoman or Arab building on the site. Today it remains a working market and meeting place, its arcades lined with cafes, tavernas, bakeries and shops.
Did you know? Despite first appearances, the market is a seven-sided polygon, a heptagon. Visitors routinely miscount it as a hexagon or octagon, since a genuine seven-sided plan is a rare shape for any building.
How long is a visit to Nea Agora (New Market)?
Set aside roughly ~30 min for Nea Agora (New Market). That covers a good look and the narrated story, and because you set the pace you can always stay on.
Is Nea Agora (New Market) worth your time?
Nea Agora (New Market) is among the 18 narrated highlights the Gingerguide team chose for Rhodes, so it is worth a look. Hear the story for the context, then ask the AI guide for anything more.
Nearby stops in Rhodes
Day 1 of the Rhodes in 2 days itinerary →
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Hear the story of Nea Agora (New Market)
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