Hayrabolu

History

Nothing is known about this city during antiquity. Chariopolis is first mentioned with the presence of Theophylact, Bishop of Chariopolis (ἐπίσκοπος Χαριουπόλεως), at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, and of Bishop Kosmas at the Fourth Council of Constantinople in 879. Nevertheless, it first appears in the Notitiae Episcopatuum of the Patriarchate of Constantinople only in the early 10th century, as a suffragan the metropolitan see of Heraclea. Byzantine emperor and founder of the Macedonian dynasty, Basil I, was born to a peasant family in Chariopolis, possibly in 811. In the 11th century, a bishop Michael is known through his seal; from the decoration it appears that he may have previously been a member of the clergy of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. The town is mentioned in the later 11th century as the site of military operations against invading nomadic tribes: the general Nikephoros Bryennios campaigned against the Pechenegs in 1051; in 1087 the town itself was sacked by a host of Pechenegs, Cumans, and Magyars; and in 1090 the Pechenegs defeated a Byzantine force in its vicinity. On 15/16 April 1205 Geoffrey of Villehardouin spent the night there, after the disastrous Battle of Adrianople. with eight incumbents between 1713 and 1970. The traveller Evliya Çelebi visited the town in the mid-17th century, describing it as prosperous, a "little Edirne", Orestias or Adrianopolis with much water and beautiful gardens. According to Evliya it was a favoured residence of Ottoman aristocrats. He also reports that the town was a centre of extensive animal husbandry, with large flocks, including camels. A Greek community, 3,476 strong in 1922, survived in the town until the Greco-Turkish population exchange. Today Hayrabolu is a small market town serving the…