Sign in with FacebookTalatpasa Caddes No:104, Edirne, Turkey
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Ceiling Detail of Uc Serefeli Camii, Edirne
Houses in central Edirne
Building near the railroad station, Karaagac
Eski Cami, Edirne
Almost surrounded by rivers, including the large Meric, Edirne has a lot of bridges, many of them very old. They cross the numerous waterways at many points and include a number of wonderful Ottoman structures. One will cross some if going to places like Beyazit, Sarayici, Karaagac, etc.
The immediate area outside and just around Edirne is very attractive and rather lush. The rivers are scenic and have thick forested vegetation along them, with restaurants and other places to relax along their banks. Also just outside Edirne is the sleepy but attractive and very wooded small town of Karaagac. See my tip on it.
This is the statue of Mimar Sinan (1490-1588) who was the chief Ottoman architect and civil engineer for sultans Suleiman I, Selim II, and Murad III. He was, during a period of fifty years, responsible for the construction or the supervision of every major building in the Ottoman Empire. More than three hundred structures are credited to his name which include 94 large mosques, 57 colleges, 52 smaller mosques, 48 bath-houses, 35 palaces, 22 mausoleums, 17 public kitchens, 8 bridges and 6 aqueducts.
His masterpiece is the Selimiye Mosque, although his most famous work is the Suleiman Mosque in Istanbul. Other works in Istanbul include the Sehzade Mehmet Mosque, Rustem Pasha Mosque and Sokollu Mehmet Pasha Mosque.
This large mosque complex is located about 1km to the north-west of the town centre and is approached by crossing another long Ottoman Bridge that was built in 1570. The mosque was built between 1484 and 1488 bj Sultan Beyazit II with the money left over after his Moldau War. The architect, Hayreddin, based the ground plan on that of the Yesil Mosque in Bursa. The building has a square prayer room with a dome on top and adjacent rooms for Quran study, as well a courtyard, and is representative for the early Ottoman mosque architecture. To the right is a medical centre, a psychiatric centre and a medical training centre (now a museum of medicine - see next tip). The mosque was being renovated when I visited in early January 2010 but I managed to get a look inside.
Edirne is located about 225km north-west of Istanbul close to the borders with Greece and Bulgaria. The area around Edirne has been the site of no fewer than 16 major battles or sieges, from the days of the ancient Greeks and has been quoted as "the most contested spot on the globe". The city was founded as Hadrianopolis, named for the Roman Emperor Hadrian but was known in English as Adrianople. Licinius was defeated here by Constantine I in 323, and Valens was killed by the Goths in 378 during the Battle of Adrianople. In 813 the city was seized by Khan Krum of Bulgaria who moved its inhabitants to the Bulgarian lands towards the north of the Danube. During the existence of the Latin Empire of Constantinople, the Crusaders were decisively defeated by the Bulgarian Emperor Kaloyan in the battle of Adrianople (1205). Later Theodore Komnenos, Despot of Epirus, took possession of it in 1227. Following its capture by the Ottoman Sultan Murad I in 1365, Edirne served as the capital city of the Ottoman Empire from 1365 to 1453 when Constantinople (Istanbul) became the empire's new capital.
Edirne is the largest town in European Turkey outside Istanbul and boasts some wonderful architectural delights; chief of which is the Selimiye Mosque. It is simply unavoidable as it's four huge minarets, (which are said to be the second highest in the world after the Qutb Minar in Delhi), soar 70-meters into the sky. The mosque was commissioned by Sultan Selim II and was built by architect Mimar Sinan between 1568 and 1574. It was considered by Sinan to be his masterpiece and is one of the highest achievements of Islamic architecture. Other attractions include the Edirne Archaeology & Ethnography Museum, Three Balconies Mosque, and Old Mosque which lies opposite the Selimiye Mosque. Just outside the town lies the Sultan II Bayezid Kulliyesi Mosque which is a 15th century mosque complex that features a museum on health. The town centre is rather pleasant with some lovely old houses and a nice pedestrianised shopping street but the outskirts of the city look quite rough. I came here from Istanbul and spent a night here before heading to the Gallipoli peninsula but you may be able to cram in the major sights as part of a day trip from Istanbul.
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