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Ruin

Edirne Palace

Turkey · 15th century

Founded
c. 1500
Style
Ottoman architecture
Location
Edirne
Coordinates
41.69111°, 26.55572°
Links
OpenStreetMap · Wikimedia Commons
Open on the map →Wikipedia ↗
Edirne Palace in Turkey
Photo: CeeGee · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Description

Edirne Palace (Turkish: Edirne Sarayı), or formerly New Imperial Palace (Ottoman Turkish: Saray-ı Cedid-i Amire), is a former palace of the Ottoman sultans in Edirne (then known in English as Adrianople), built during the era when the city was the capital of the empire. Few of the palace buildings have survived until now, though reconstruction works are underway.

The palace was built in a hunting ground and woods covering 30–35 ha (74–86 acres) land north of the city on the west bank of the Tunca river. Construction of the palace began in 1450 during the reign of Murad II (r. 1421–1444, 1446–1451), but stopped when the sultan died. After some time, work was resumed and it was completed by Mehmed the Conqueror (r. 1444–1446, 1451–1481) in 1475. In the following years, the palace was continuously maintained and extended with new buildings around it during the reigns of Suleiman the Magnificent (r. 1520–1566), Ahmed I (r. 1603–1617), Mehmed IV (r. 1648–1687), Ahmed II (r. 1691–1695) and Ahmed III (r. 1703–1730).

The palace remained unused from 1718, when Ahmed III relocated his seat to Istanbul, until 1768, when Mustafa III (r. 1757–1774) returned to the city. During this half-century of vacancy, the palace fell into a state of dilapidation. The destruction was abetted by the 1752 earthquake and the 1776 fire in the city. In 1825, some parts of the palace were repaired by Mahmud II (r. 1808–1839). The palace was damaged heavily when the Russian forces occupying Edirne in 1829 used it as a military camp. Between 1868 and 1873, many buildings of the palace complex underwent restoration by the city governors of the time. Finally, the palace was destroyed to great extent when an ammunition depot close by was intentionally blown up on the order of the Governor of Edirne, in fear of nearing Russian forces during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78. The structural elements of the ruined palace were then plundered to be used elsewhere.

Archaeologist Mustafa Özer of Bahçeşehir University, who leads the excavation works at site, reported that they obtained some photographs of the palace complex taken before its destruction.

Text adapted from “Edirne Palace” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

In the rankings

Edirne Palace ranks #690 of 9,902 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #21 of the 130 mapped in Turkey. Founded c. 1500, it is older than 43% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 596 atlas entries founded in the 15th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 6,689 times in the last 60 days, more than 91% of the atlas. See how Turkey compares in the castle statistics.

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