Qualla: Edirne https://qualla.com/edirne en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:30 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Edirne https://qualla.com/edirne Edirne: Introduction https://qualla.com/edirne/ Most travelers crossing into Turkey from Greece or Bulgaria look right past Edirne. They are bound for Istanbul, two hours east on the D100, and the road is fast and the bus rolls on through. They miss something. Before there was an Ottoman Istanbul, there was an Ottoman Edirne - the empire's capital from 1369 to 1453, an imperial retreat after that, and between 1700 and 1750 the fourth-largest city in Europe. Three rivers meet here on the gently rolling Thracian plains. The skyline is still owned by minarets, including the four needle-thin spires of the Selimiye Mosque, which the great architect Sinan considered his masterpiece. It is, by almost any honest reckoning, one of the top sights in Turkey.

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]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/x/6/v/edirne-wk/sx6v-edirne-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Edirne: The City Hadrian Named After Himself https://qualla.com/edirne/ The Thracian settlement of Uskadama was already old when Roman Emperor Hadrian rebuilt it in 125 AD and, with no false modesty, named it Hadrianopolis. Sitting astride a major trade route in fertile country, it was always going to be fought over - sixteen major battles and sieges...

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]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/x/6/v/edirne-wk/sx6v-edirne-the-city-hadrian-named-after-himself.mp3 0:06 2 full Edirne: Sinan's Final Test https://qualla.com/edirne/ If you visit one building in Edirne, visit the Selimiye Mosque. The Ottoman court architect Mimar Sinan was eighty when he completed it in 1574, having already given Istanbul the Süleymaniye and dozens of others. Selimiye was the one he wanted to be remembered by. The dome is ove...

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]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/x/6/v/edirne-wk/sx6v-edirne-sinans-final-test.mp3 0:06 3 full Edirne: Three Rivers and a Tangle of Bridges https://qualla.com/edirne/ The Tundzha and the Maritsa wind around Edirne in long lazy curves, joining south of the city before flowing on to form the Greek border. Where the rivers and their floodplains had to be crossed, the Ottomans built bridges - long, low, multi-arched stone causeways that still carr...

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]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/x/6/v/edirne-wk/sx6v-edirne-three-rivers-and-a-tangle-of-bridges.mp3 0:06 4 full Edirne: Wrestlers in Olive Oil https://qualla.com/edirne/ Once a year, on a river island just north of town, men strip down to leather breeches called kispet, slick themselves head to toe in olive oil, and try to throw each other to the ground. The Kırkpınar oil-wrestling festival has run at this site since 1360, making it one of the ol...

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]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/x/6/v/edirne-wk/sx6v-edirne-wrestlers-in-olive-oil.mp3 0:06 5 full Edirne: Borders, Famine, and Fried Liver https://qualla.com/edirne/ The Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 redrew Turkey's borders just west of Edirne, severing it from much of its hinterland and leaving it stranded against a not-very-friendly frontier. Turkey was neutral in the Second World War, but Nazi flags flew across the river over Axis Bulgaria an...

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]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/x/6/v/edirne-wk/sx6v-edirne-borders-famine-and-fried-liver.mp3 0:06 6 full