The Keyhole on Aventine Hill: A Hidden Gem Worth Finding
The Knights of Malta emerged during the Crusades as a military order of monks called the Hospitaller Knights. Their original goal was to run a hospital in Jerusalem to care for pilgrims and crusaders.
When Jerusalem fell to Islamic forces, the Knights first moved to Rhodes and, after its fall, eventually settled on the island of Malta in the 16th century.
When the Knights of Malta established a priory in Rome, they were granted their Villa on the Aventine as headquarters. The site had been a strategically important location since the Middle Ages, once occupied by a fortified Benedictine monastery in the 10th century. It belonged to the Templars, and after their suppression in 1312, it passed to the Hospitaller Knights.
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