Edirne

Edirne (formerly Adrianople, ancient Hadrianopolis or Adrianopolis), city in north-west Turkey, near Bulgaria, on both banks of the Tunca River at its confluence with the Maritsa. Edirne, the capital of Edirne Province, lies in the centre of the fertile Thracian coastal plain, on the Balkan Peninsula, in the European part of Turkey. The city is a marketplace for fruit, wine grapes, and other agricultural produce. The principal items manufactured in the city are silk, cotton, linen, woollen goods, leather articles, and tapestries. Raw silk, rose water, attar of roses, opium, wax, and “Turkey-red” dye are among its exports. The legacy of the cultural and economic achievements of the Ottoman Empire is apparent in Edirne’s great mosques, including the 16th-century Selimiye Cami, built in the 1500s by the famous Turkish architect Sinan, and the mosque of Bayazid, completed in 1488. Major roads connect the city with İstanbul and points in central Europe.

Originally known as Uskadama or Uskudama when it was part of eastern Thrace, the city was rebuilt and renamed by the Roman emperor Hadrian about ad 125. It was the focal point of the Battle of Adrianople (ad 378), in which the Romans under Emperor Valens were defeated by the Goths. Edirne was then conquered successively by the Avars, the Bulgarians, and the Crusaders. In 1361 the Turks gained control of the city, and the Turkish sultans lived here until 1453. Edirne constantly changed hands during the Russo-Turkish wars of 1828-1829 and 1877-1878, and was also taken by the Bulgarians during the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913. Turkey regained control of the city during the Second Balkan War, but lost it to Greece in 1920. Edirne was returned to Turkey by the Treaty of Lausanne in 1922. Population 102,345 (1990).