History of Edirne and the City’s Form

Situated in Thrace (Trakya) on the European side of the Marmara Region of Turkey, the city of Edirne is today important as a border city that ranks as a cultural and university center. Because it served as one of the Ottoman Empire’s three historical capital cities (the others being Bursa and Istanbul), the city is an open-air museum with very important monuments and architectural elements. Among the historical buildings still extant are mosques, charity complexes, bridges, old shop buildings, caravansaries, palaces, historical houses, and their quarters.

Developing out of its former role as an old Byzantine fortress, the city advanced greatly as a Turkish-Muslim city during the Ottoman Empire. Its development was significantly boosted by construction and improvements ordered by the successive sultans, in their first-degree positions, and by high-ranking state officials of second and third-degree positions. The significance of the role they played in the development of the city is evident from the fact that they gave their names to many neighborhoods.

The concept of centralization became the catalyst for a significant change in the old Paleo-Christian fortress city of Edirne. Ottoman monuments and shopping areas began to cluster in the northeastern corner of the city. Within a period of 200 years after the Turkish conquest, Edirne had acquired the look of a developed city with new districts and inhabited quarters.

Edirne’s form is the result of three distinct types of urban development specific to the three periods of urban history: Roman/Byzantine, Ottoman, and Modern. The Roman/Byzantine form was included in the Ottoman city, which took on a more homogeneous form in the modern era.

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