Havsa () is a district of

Edirne Province Edirne Province ( tr, ) is a Turkish province located in East Thrace. Part of European Turkey, it is one of only three provinces located entirely within continental Europe. Edirne Province is bordered by Tekirdağ Province and Kırklareli Pr ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. The mayor is Aydın Balkan ( AKP). The population is 8,602 as of 2010.

History

Havsa was founded by

Ancient Romans In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom ...

. When the empire split into two, the city fell into the area of the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

. In 1331, the land was captured by

Turks Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic languages * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic ...

under the leadership of

Murat I Murad I ( ota, مراد اول; tr, I. Murad, Murad-ı Hüdavendigâr (nicknamed ''Hüdavendigâr'', from fa, خداوندگار, translit=Khodāvandgār, lit=the devotee of God – meaning "sovereign" in this context); 29 June 1326 – 15 Jun ...

and the area was named ''Hosa''. After

Edirne Edirne (, ), formerly known as Adrianople or Hadrianopolis (Greek: Άδριανούπολις), is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders, ...

became the center of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

, the

Rûm Rūm ( ar, روم , collective; singulative: Rūmī ; plural: Arwām ; fa, روم Rum or Rumiyān, singular Rumi; tr, Rûm or , singular ), also romanized as ''Roum'', is a derivative of the Aramaic (''rhπmÈ'') and Parthian (''frwm'') te ...

population in ''Hosa'' abandoned the city and moved to

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

and

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area, and the capi ...

. After the capture of

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

, Turks from

Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

moved in, making the town Turkish.

Geography

The town is 69 kilometers away from

. The district borders the Edirne district to the north and west, the district of

Süloğlu Süloğlu (Greek: Ασβεστοχώρι ''Asvestochṓri''Greek exonyms; from the National Census of Greek Kingdom 1920-1921) is a district of Edirne Province of Turkey. The population was 3,394 in 2010. The mayor is Mehmet Ormankıran ( CHP). Hi ...

to the north, the province of

Kırklareli Kırklareli () is a city within Kırklareli Province in the East Thrace, European part of Turkey. Name It is not clearly known when the city was founded, nor under what name. The Byzantine Greeks called it Sarànta Ekklisiès (''Σαράντα Ε� ...

to the east and the district of

Uzunköprü Uzunköprü is a town in Edirne Province in Turkey. It is named after a historical stone bridge, claimed to be the world's longest, on the Ergene River. It is a strategically important border town, located on the routes connecting Turkey to the B ...

to the south. The town is located 218 kilometers from

Name

The town was called ''Hosa'' by the Turks in 1331. After

Hafsa Hatun Hafsa Hatun ( ota, حفصه خاتون) was a Turkish princess, and the wife of Bayezid I, 14th century, of the Ottoman Empire. Life Hafsa Hatun was the daughter of Isa Bey, the ruler of the Aydinids. She was married to Bayezid in 1390 upon hi ...

moved to the town, it was called ''Hafsa''. Later, the two names were combined to form the current name ''Havsa''.

References

Populated places in Edirne Province Districts of Edirne Province {{Edirne-geo-stub