The Fluvian mansion has been standing here for years, but much like Rhodes town, the place carries an even longer history. When the Dodecanese became part of Italy in 1912, many of the buildings were recorded for the first time, and it is found that a group of houses of Turkish property stood here. The houses were ultimately destroyed during World War II, when a German bomb aiming the refuge next door, the famous Promachona, hit the compound, and the lot was sold to a priest from Karpathos, our great-grand father, Nikitas Papanikitas.

Nikitas's sons, Nikos and Ioannis, used the space in the 1950s as the headquarters of their roadmaking company. Starting in the 1960s, the lot became the center of more creative endeavors, as Ioannis created a tile-making workshop. As life and entrepreneurship on Rhodes island picked up pace, he moved his work to the centre and the lot was rented to a woodworking workshop.

In 1984, Michael Papanikitas, a doctor, inherited the space and decided it was time it housed the everyday life of a family again, dedicating the following couple of years on building the villa, guided by his vision and love of the old town. The house became more spacious with the addition of a second floor in 2010, and in 2019, Villa Fluvian welcomed its first visitors, all the way from Sydney.