Edirne
[key], city, capital of Edirne prov., NW Turkey, in Thrace. It is the
commercial center for a farm region where grains, fruits, and tobacco are
grown and cattle and sheep are raised. The city was founded (c.a.d.
125) by Hadrian, the Roman emperor, on the site of Uscudama. Of great
strategic importance and strongly fortified, the city has had a turbulent
history. The defeat (378) of Emperor Valens by the Visigoths at Adrianople
left Greece open to invasion by barbarian tribes. Later conquered by the
Avars, the Bulgarians, and the Crusaders, the city passed to the Ottoman
Turks in 1361 and was the residence of the Ottoman sultans until the
conquest of Constantinople in 1453. Russia captured the city twice (1829 and
1878) during the Russo-Turkish Wars. It fell (1913) to Bulgaria in the First
Balkan War but was restored to Turkey after the Second Balkan War. It passed
to Greece by the Treaty of Sèvres (1920), but was again restored to
Turkey by the Treaty of Lausanne (1923). The city's many mosques include the
great mosque of Selim II (completed 1574). The city was also called Orestia
by Byzantine writers.
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