Kırklareli

Sister cities

• Walldorf
• Nilüfer
• Ardino
• Manisa

History

Ongoing archeological excavations in the city support the claim that the area was the location of one of the first organized settlements on the European continent, with artifacts from the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods. The settlement and its surrounding areas were conquered by the Persians in 513–512 BC, during the reign of King Darius I. In 914 during the Bulgarian invasion in Adrianople led by Simeon I, the settlement was captured by the Bulgarians and was under Bulgarian rule until 1003 when it was lost to the Byzantines. The Ottoman Turks took the city and its region from the Byzantines in 1363, during the reign of Sultan Murad I. The city was damaged during the Greek War of Independence (1821–1829). According to the 1878 record "Ethnography of the Wilayahs Adrianopol, Monastir and Thessaloniki" Kırk Kilise was inhabited by 6,700 Bulgarians, 2,850 Greeks, and 2,700 belonging to other ethnic groups (Turks, Gajals, Dağlılar, Pomaks, Circassians). In 1906, the Diocese of Saranda Ekklisies was detached from the Metropolis of Adrianople and was elevated to the status of Metropolis. According to the official Ottoman census of 1881-1882, the Sanjak of Kirk Klise had a total population of 125,329 people, including 36,227 Muslims (28.9%), 53,663 Greek Orthodox Christians (42.8%), 33,999 Bulgarian Orthodox Christians (27.1%) and 1,440 others, mostly Jews. By the 1906-1907 Ottoman census, the total population had grown to 181,204, of which 78,338 were Muslims (43.2%), 70,501 Greek Orthodox Christians (38.9%), 29,736 Bulgarian Orthodox Christians (16.4%) and 2,629 others following the settlement of Muslims from the Ottoman Empire's former holdings on the Balkans and the mass exodus of Bulgarians in the wake of the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising. During the Balkan…