Uzunköprü

Uzunköprü is a small town in Edirne Province, northwestern Turkey. It is located at about coord|41|16|10|N|26|41|10|E.

It is on the railway line from Istanbul towards Sofia, Belgrade and western Europe, and a frontier post on the Bulgarian border.

Uzunkopru is a first county on the European side Ottoman Empires. Uzunkopru was build ~ D.C. 1430.

Uzunkopru, on Ergene River in Edirne, is known by its unique specialities as it the only bridge on which connects Anatolia and Balkans and the longest stone bridge in the world. Its old name is Ergene Bridge(Cisr-i Ergene). The bridge gave its name to the town of Edirne, Uzunkopru.

Muslihiddin, which was the head architect of the term, had been made to build Uzunkopru between the years 1426 and 1443 by Ottoman Emperor 2nd Murat. In the building of the bridge, the head architect Muslihiddin and architect Mehmet had collaborated together.

The bridge, which has 174 archs, is 1329 meters long and 6.80 meters width. Some of the archs are pointed and some of them are round. The width and the length of the bidge can change from place to place. On some of its foots there are props and on some of them, there are bolconies. Between the foots there are elephant, lion and bird figures takes attention.

The bridge was made to pass Ergene River which was a natural barrier for the conquests towards the Balkans for the Otoman Empire. The stone bridge, which was made because of the old bridges made of wood were collapsed because of the river, obtained Turkish incursions also during the winter. When the Uzunkopru had settled up, there also a mosque and one alms house had built up and also one city had settled up called Ergene (now, Uzunkopru).

The bridge had been restorated in 1963. The Edirne – Izmir state road is still passing through Uzunkopru.

See also : www.uzunkopru.gen.tr