Edirne Things to Do

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The Ottoman style Turkish bath (also called as “hamami”) was built in 16th century. Architect of this public place was famous Mimar Sinan. The bath has two separate entrances for men and women.

Such type of baths were quite popular in Ottoman period, nowadays still some old buildings are used for the same purpose or as museums.

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It is quite famous mosque in Edirne, mostly due to its architecture. Every minaret has different styles, and one minaret is with three balconies. Actually even the name of mosque literally means “Three balconies mosque”.

It was built in 1438 – 1447 during the reign of Murat II. For that time the way how mosque looked like was quite unusual. Some examples of its architecture later were copied by Mimar Sinan.

It was one of the most interesting Edirne buildings to me, probably due to different minarets.

This mosque is not only mosque, but also insane asylum, Turkish bath, medical school and so on. The famous building was constructed in 1484 – 1488 by architect Hayreddin. Place is intensively domed and that’s why it is different from other mosques.

In former medical school nowadays museum of medicine is housed, as I heard it is very interesting and internationally nominated (haven’t visited it).

Mimar Sinan is probably the most famous architect in Turkey. He was thinking that Selimiye mosque is the most valuable work by him, so probably it is quite symbolic to see his statue in front of this mosque.

His lifetime was 1490 – 1588. At young ages he participated in battles with Janissaries, had opportunity to see lots of different (especially Eastern style) architecture.

He modeled more than 100 mosques (let say, Blue mosque or Suleimaniye mosque in Istanbul), 35 baths, more than 30 palaces, and so on.

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It is miniatiure mosque not so far from high Selimiye temple. The structure was built in 1437, still in times when Edirne was a capital. Entering the yard you could see neglect muslim graves.

Such small mosques is quite frequent in Edirne center, but most of them are not siginificant.

The museum is located just on a backside of Selimiye mosque, seems it functions in a new building. The museum, showing prehistoric and Roman, Greek, Bizantine things was opened in 1971. Nearby museum there is cemetery with interesting Muslim graves.

I guess it is the main museum of Edirne region.

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Arasta market is located just near Selimiye mosque; its collider could be used as an entrance to mosque’s inner yard. Here is a wide variety of Turkish souvenirs, including special things from Edirne region, as vegetable and fruit looking soaps.

Arasta market was built as a support of Selimiye mosque in Murat III reign time (1574 – 1595).

Bedesten is a covered market in the central part of Edirne. It was constructed in 1417 – 1418 by Sultan Mehmet. At first it was used as a part of nearby Eski mosque (as most of main mosques it also had market nearby).

It is known that interior was so rich, that it needed to be guarded by sixty people. Nowadays it is also used as market, just bigger one than Arasta.