Happy TravellerWelcome to Uzunköprü, a historic town located in Edirne Province, Turkey. This charming town is named after the world’s longest historical stone bridge, which spans the Ergene River. Uzunköprü is strategically located on the routes connecting Turkey to the Balkans and Europe, making it an important border town. With a population of 39,577 (2022), Uzunköprü is the third most populous town in Edirne Province. The town is served by Uzunköprü railway station.
Etymology:
Both the Greek (Greek: Μακρά Γέφυρα, romanized: Makrá Géphura) and Turkish names of the town can be translated as long bridge.
History:
The history of Uzunköprü dates back to the Neolithic Era (8000–5500). The region was settled by the Thracians in the 15th century BC and was dominated by Greeks, Persians, Romans, and Byzantines. However, a city had never been built on the area where today’s Uzunköprü exists because it had been covered with vast swamps and dense forests until the Ottomans. The closest city to today’s settlement built in the region is Plotinopolis, established by the Roman Emperor Trajan (AD 53–117) on the banks of the Maritsa River between Uzunköprü and Didymoteicho in Greek Thrace. This ancient city is also called Old Uzunköprü. Eventually, the region was captured from the Byzantine Empire after the Ottoman conquest of Adrianople (which became renamed Edirne) in the 1360s, and only afterwards it could be possible for Uzunköprü city to be established. Uzunköprü is the first Turkish city established in Rumelia by the Ottoman Empire. It was founded by Great Sultan Murad II in 1427 under the name of Ergene City. The establishment of the city is the result of both the necessity of a settlement place acting as a junction point on the ways connecting the Ottoman capital Edirne to Gallipoli and the Balkans and secondly taking 16 years to build the Long Bridge over the Ergene River. Murad II decided to build a stone bridge over the Ergene River when his army couldn’t pass the river during a campaign against Gallipoli because of the flood caused by the heavy rain at that time and collapse of the temporary wooden bridges easily. The first 360-arched stone bridge built between 1424 and 1427 wasn’t found satisfactory, thereby destructed and rebuilt by Murad II. It is that second bridge existing in the city today. The construction of this second bridge had lasted from 1427 to 1443 and could be finished in 16 years. Due to the long-lasting works, the meeting of the needs of the workers and the soldiers protecting them and the area became indispensably necessary and had to be built a mosque, public kitchen, caravanserai, medrese, hammam, and two water mills as facilities besides. Subsequently, families from firstly Edirne and later the Turkoman tribes who had passed onto Rumelia was brought and settled in the region to maintain and develop those facilities, thus it was laid the foundations of the city. This very first settlement called as Cisr-i Ergene (Ergene Bridge) had immediately become the trade route of the merchants carrying goods from Edirne to Gallipoli overland for shipping to Europe, Egypt, and Syria, and flourished rapidly. In the beginning of the 20th century, the small town had a mixed population of Turks, Bulgarians, Greeks, Orthodox Albanians, Armenians, Jews, Gypsies, etc. In 1913, Turks uprooted 300 Bulgarian families, and till 1922 evicted all Greeks, Orthodox Albanians, Armenians, etc. Uzunköprü remained under Turkish sovereignty uninterruptedly till the 19th century. However, in the following years, it had been occupied four times up to the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire: by Russia twice, from 20 August to 20 November 1829 and 21 January 1878 to 13 March 1879; by Bulgaria, from 2 November 1912 to 19 July 1913 and lastly by Greece, from 25 July 1920 to 18 November 1922. The city regained its present name after reconquered by the Turks on 18 November 1922. Eventually, Uzunköprü was left in
