Edirne

Climate

Temperate continental — hot and occasionally rainy as showers which tend to last for 15–20 minutes summers expect up to 40º C; cold and rainy, occasionally snowy winters expect down to -10º C. Spring and autumn months tend to be warmer than the locations on the sea coast such as Istanbul—so if day-tripping from a coastal place during those months, especially in May, drink plenty of water to avoid headaches due to dehydration—but winter arrives earlier in November. Because Edirne lies in a geography that is the entering point of many weather systems from Balkans Southeastern Europe into Turkey, a good way of forecasting the weather conditions for the next few days is to follow what other Balkan cities such as Plovdiv, Bulgaria is currently experiencing, as quite the same conditions will be what Edirne is experiencing within a two or three days time.

Due to cold and dry winds of winters, packing along some kind of skin moisturizer in addition to warm clothing is essential to avoid badly dried skin which can go as far as bleeding in coldest days.

History

The area around Edirne, thanks to its strategic position on the major routes towards Istanbul, Bosphorus, and onward to Asia, is one of the spots on earth that was heavily fought for—it has been site of no fewer 16 major battles and sieges since the days of Ancient Greeks.

Edirne’s former name is Adrianople Hadrianoupolis, i.e. “City of Hadrianus”, named after the Roman emperor who founded the city on the site of Thracian village of Uskudama.

Then in 14th century, Ottomans captured the city and made it their capital, a situation which lasted until the Fall of Constantinople. Even after the dynasty moved to Constantinople in mid 15th century, Edirne was one of, if not the most, important centres of European part of the Otoman Empire, which once extended all the way well into Hungary, and still was some sort of semi-capital of the empire, with some sultans even favouring the city over Istanbul and mumbling to no avail about returning the throne back to the city. Between 1700 and 1750, Edirne was the fourth biggest city in Europe, with an estimated population of about 350,000 people.

However things dramatically changed with the beginning of 19th century and the city suffered heavy depopulation in the context of Russo-Turkish wars of 1829 and 1878 when Russians occupied all the way to western suburbs of Istanbul, Balkan Wars of late 19th/early 20th century, the loss of much of the hinterland and even outer suburbs to north and west when international borders non-existant before when all was part of Ottoman Empire were created close to the city in 1910s and 20s, and the Second World War when Nazi armies were only miles away from the city, just on the opposite banks of the rivers and most of the population was evacuated into interior Turkey. Some of whom could not flee died of following famine during this period. This depopulation trend slowly but constantly continued until very recently and the city is now home to barely 140,000 people. Although it is quite a lively city, especially compared to other Turkish cities of this size, however all you see today is just a fraction of its former glory.

Orientation

The major streets of the city all fan out of main square, which is surrounded by three imperial mosques of Selimiye, Üç Şerefeli and Old Mosques — Talat Paşa Bulvarı lies towards east, eventually turning into the highway to Istanbul, while Londra Asfaltı leads to Bulgarian border at Kapıkule in the west, via Gazi Mihal Bridge across Tundzha. To north, Hükümet Caddesi connects city centre with the former palace neighbourhood in Sarayiçi and to south pedestrianized Saraçlar Caddesi lies, extension lying on the edge of old city and open to vehicular traffic of which eventually leads to Karaağaç across Tundzha and Maritsa.

 

This city can be your first or last destination in Turkey, depening on the direction of your itinerary, as it’s located on an intersection where borders of three countries meet: Turkey, Greece, and Bulgaria. Visiting this city is also feasible as a long day trip from Istanbul.

With the completion of the motorway from Kapıkule, the main borderpost of highways from Europe into Turkey, in early 1990s, the city lost much of its trade evolving around land based travellers heading east and members of Turkish diaspora in Europe heading for their ancestral hometowns in their annual visits. Today most of tourism in the city takes place around daytrippers, Turkish and foreigner alike, from Istanbul and visitors from Balkan countries looking for cheap goods in the market.

The imperial past is what makes Edirne interesting, from huge Ottoman imperial complexes to neo-classical architecture of downtown shops, although at first sight, all you’ll see will be concrete apartment blocks when entering the city and Selimiye Mosque right in front of you.

Tourism Information Office