Ottoman bridge spanning Maritsa on the way to Karaağaç
Former train station in Karaağaç
Southwest of downtown is the quarter of Karaağaç (pronounced kaa raa aa ach), the only Turkish territory west of Maritsa River, which forms most of Turkish-Greek land border.
Two Ottoman bridges connect Karaağaç to downtown, which are well worth a look?pick these if you don’t have time to check out any other bridge around the city. The first and shorter one, just southwest of the edge of old quarter (Kaleiçi) and actually quite close to the Synagogue at the end of Maarif Caddesi, spans the Tundzha. About 250 mt further, you’ll arrive at the second one, which spans the Maritsa and is gloriously longer than the first one, as the riverbed is gloriously larger, not much unlike that of Danube. Right at the midpoint of the bridge, there is a lookout in typical Ottoman style.
A two-and-a-half-kilometre long cobbled road through a lush forest links the Maritsa Bridge with Karaağaç. On the way, there is an urban forest named Söğütlük (admission 2 TL pp), a favourite weekend picnic spot of locals which extends along the bank of river.
Karaağaç has an atmosphere more of a town rather than a city neighbourhood, with some charming mansions scattered around its grid plan. At the southwestern end of Karaağaç is the historical building in late Ottoman style of the Presidency of Trakya University (Trakya Üniversitesi Rektörlüğü), placed in a pleasant garden (free admission). The building, which dates back to the final years of 19th century, was originally built as the main train station of the city as the steam locomotive at the backyard still attests, and had that service for years until 1970s when it was abandoned after a new railway straight to the city was laid, due to the increasingly inconvenient operation of former railtracks crisscrossing Turkish-Greek border as the relations between two nations detoriate. The university took over in 1998. At the side of the building is Lausanne Monument (Lozan Anıtı), a metallic structure of three columns symbolizing Turkey (the longest one symbolizes Asian Turkey, the middle-sized symbolizes Eastern Thrace (European Turkey), while the shortest symbolizes Karaağaç itself, being the only Turkish soil west of Maritsa River, in other words west of Eastern Thrace) with a lady in the middle holding a sheet of paper, presumably symbolizing Treaty of Lausanne, in which major western powers recognized newly founded Turkish Republic in 1923. Behind the monument, in the shades of a pine woods is an open air sculpture exhibition (free admission) which contains marble statues chipped in situ by sculptors from neighbouring countries.
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Edirne Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
