Adrianople

The following text is from the 1911 Encyclopedia.

Edirne is 137 m. by rail W.N.W. of Constantinople.

Edirne ranks, after Constantinople and Salonica, third in size and importance among the cities of European Turkey. It is the see of a Greek archbishop, and of one Armenian and two Bulgarian bishops. It is the chief fortress near the Bulgarian frontier, being defended by a ring of powerful modern forts. It occupies both banks of the river Tunja,. at its confluence with the Maritza, which is navigable to this point in spring and winter. The nearest seaport by rail is Dedeagatch, west of the Maritza; Enos, at the river-mouth, is the nearest by water. Adrianople is on the railway from Belgrade and Sofia to Constantinople and Salonica.

Adrianople historically has been the commercial headquarters of all Thrace, and of a large portion of the region between the Balkana and the Danube, now Bulgaria.

Adrianople was originally known as Uskadama, Uskudama or Uskodama, but was renamed and enlarged by the Roman emperor Hadrian (117-138). In 378 the Romans were here defeated by the Goths. Adrianople was the residence of the Turkish sultans from 1361, when it was captured by Murad I., until 1453, when Constantinople fell. It was occupied by the Russians in 1829 and 1878 (see Russo-Turkish Wars).

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