Edirne

Edirne, formerly Adrianople or Hadrianople, city, extreme western Turkey. It lies at the junction of the Tunca and Maritsa (Turkish: Meriç) rivers, near the borders of Greece and Bulgaria. The largest and oldest part of the town occupies a meander of the Tunca around the ruins of an ancient citadel. Edirne’s site and turbulent history were determined by its strategic position on the main route from Asia Minor (Anatolia) to the Balkans.

Originally called Uskudama and probably first settled by Thracian tribes, the town was rebuilt and enlarged about 125 CE by the Roman emperor Hadrian, who renamed it Hadrianopolis. In 378 the city was the site of the Battle of Adrianople, in which the Goths dealt Rome a crushing defeat. It was besieged by the Avars in 586. The city was captured by the Bulgars in the 10th century and was ransacked twice by Crusaders until it fell to the Ottomans in 1362. It then served as the forward base for Ottoman expansion into Europe. It served as the capital of the Ottoman Empire from 1413 until 1458 and flourished as an administrative, commercial, and cultural centre. Its decline came with foreign occupations and devastation in wars.