This album contains 68 photographs of Edirne, a historical city in Thrace, northwestern Turkey, taken in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Edirne was the Ottoman capital from 1413 until 1458 and always remained an important administrative, commercial and cultural centre. The album was published on the occasion of the exhibition which was organized in Edirne jointly by the Governorate of Edirne, the Municipality of Edirne, Thrace Development Agency and IRCICA from 8-15 April 2015. The photographs were selected from the Yıldız Photograph Albums, which form the basis of IRCICA’s photograph archives. They are grouped under ten headings. Section 1 is a panorama of the city reproduced in lithography from a photograph of Edirne dated 1871; Section 2 has general views, and section 3, views of Edirne Palace. Section 4, titled Mosques, shows the Mosque of Sultan Bayezid II, Ismihan Sultan Mosque, Kadirihane Lodge, Kasım Pasha Mosque, Muradiye Mosque, Selimiye Mosque, and Üç Şerefeli Mosque; Section 5 is devoted to the Clock and Fire Tower, while Section 6, titled Public Buildings, shows the Governorate, army departments, military establishments, and hospitals; Section 7 is on schools for different levels of education, while Section 8 has photographs of the bridges surrounding Edirne such as Meriç (Maritza), Tundzha, Saraçhane, Gazi Mihal, Sarayiçi and Saray bridges. Section 9 is about the Exhibition of Crops and Manufactures which was organized for the first time in Edirne in 1905 and which can be considered as a prototype of today’s trade fairs; Section 10 has scenes of Edirne from the years of the Independence War and the Balkan Wars.
