Lüleburgaz (,

Modern Greek Modern Greek (, , or , ''Kiní Neoellinikí Glóssa''), generally referred to by speakers simply as Greek (, ), refers collectively to the dialects of the Greek language spoken in the modern era, including the official standardized form of the ...

: Λουλέ Μπουργκάς ''Lule Burgas'', Bulgarian: Люлебургаз ''Lyuleburgaz''), Bergoulion (

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

: Βεργούλιον) or Arcadiopolis (Ancient Greek: Αρκαδιόυπολις ''Arkadiópolis'') is the largest city and district of

Kırklareli Province Kırklareli Province ( tr, ) is a province in northwestern Turkey on the west coast of the Black Sea. The province neighbours Bulgaria to the north along a long border. It borders the province of Edirne to the west and the province of Tekirda ...

in the

Marmara region The Marmara Region ( Turkish: ''Marmara Bölgesi'') is a geographical region of Turkey. Located in northwestern Turkey, it is bordered by Greece and the Aegean Sea to the west, Bulgaria and the Black Sea to the north, the Black Sea Region to th ...

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

. Located near the

border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...

with Bulgaria within the historic region of East Thrace in Rumelia, the city is home to many

Balkan Turks The Balkan Turks or Rumelian Turks ( tr, ) are the Turkish people who have been living in the Balkans since the Ottoman rule as well as their descendants who still live in the region today. The Turks are officially recognized as a minority in Bos ...

from Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and ex-Yugoslavia who immigrated to Turkey since the 19th century. Lüleburgaz is a hub for road and rail transportation, with the city being connected to Istanbul and Edirne by the Istanbul-Kapikule Regional Train and to Plovdiv, Sofia, Belgrade, Bucharest and Budapest by the Bosphorus Express and the Istanbul-Sofia Express. The city has an urban population of 122,635 (2021 census). Its best known attraction is the 16th-century Sokollu Mehmed Pasha Mosque, named after the Grand Vizier Mehmet Paşa Sokolović and designed by the Ottoman chief

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Mimar Sinan Mimar Sinan ( ota, معمار سينان, translit=Mi'mâr Sinân, , ) ( 1488–1490 – 17 July 1588) also known as Koca Mi'mâr Sinân Âğâ, ("Sinan Agha the Grand Architect" or "Grand Sinan") was the chief Ottoman architect ( tr, l ...

who also designed a bridge for the city.

History

The city used to be the capital of the

Roman province The Roman provinces (Latin: ''provincia'', pl. ''provinciae'') were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was rule ...

of Europa, established by the Roman Emperor Diocletian in 294. The city's ancient name was

Bergula Bergule or Bergula or Bergoule ( grc, Βεργούλη), also Bergulium or Bergoulion (Βεργούλιον), also called Bergulae or Virgulae, was a town in ancient Thrace, which was in later times called Arcadiopolis, Arcadiupolis, or Arkadioupo ...

but Emperor

Theodosius I Theodosius I ( grc-gre, Θεοδόσιος ; 11 January 347 – 17 January 395), also called Theodosius the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. During his reign, he succeeded in a crucial war against the Goths, as well as in two ...

changed it to Arcadiopolis in honour of his son and successor

Arcadius Arcadius ( grc-gre, Ἀρκάδιος ; 377 – 1 May 408) was Roman emperor from 383 to 408. He was the eldest son of the ''Augustus'' Theodosius I () and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and the brother of Honorius (). Arcadius ruled the ...

. The city of Arcadiopolis fell to Attila the Hun during his campaign against the Eastern Roman Empire in 443 AD. During the revolt of

Thomas the Slav Thomas the Slav ( gr, Θωμᾶς ὁ Σλάβος, Thōmas ho Slavos, – October 823) was a 9th-century Byzantine military commander, most notable for leading a wide-scale revolt in 821–23 against Emperor Michael II the Amorian (). A ...

against Michael II, the city was Thomas' last refuge after the defection of his troops in 823. Michael II invested the city and after more than five months of siege, the exhausted and starving troops gave up their leader in exchange for an imperial pardon. Thomas was handed over on a donkey and tortured. The Battle of Arcadiopolis of 970 saw the Byzantine forces defeat an invading Kievan-

Pecheneg The Pechenegs () or Patzinaks tr, Peçenek(ler), Middle Turkic: , ro, Pecenegi, russian: Печенег(и), uk, Печеніг(и), hu, Besenyő(k), gr, Πατζινάκοι, Πετσενέγοι, Πατζινακίται, ka, პაჭ ...

- Magyar force who were aiming to capture

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 ( ...

, to the east. As the capital of the

of Europa, Acradiopolis had its own bishop, who was recorded as attending a number of important church councils; it was noted as an

autocephalous Autocephaly (; from el, αὐτοκεφαλία, meaning "property of being self-headed") is the status of a hierarchical Christian church whose head bishop does not report to any higher-ranking bishop. The term is primarily used in Eastern O ...

archbishopric by the seventh century. It is no longer a residential bishopric, although the Diocese of Arcadiopolis survives as a Roman Catholic

titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbis ...

Marcel Lefebvre Marcel François Marie Joseph Lefebvre (; 29 November 1905 – 25 March 1991) was a French Catholic archbishop who greatly influenced modern traditional Catholicism. In 1970, he founded the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), a community to tra ...

, the founder of the

Society of Saint Pius X The Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) ( la, Fraternitas Sacerdotalis Sancti Pii X; FSSPX) is an international fraternity of traditionalist Catholic priests founded in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, a leading traditionalist voice at the Sec ...

, was one of its

titular bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox ...

s. The Battle of Lüleburgas was fought between 28 October and 2 November 1912 during the

First Balkan War The First Balkan War ( sr, Први балкански рат, ''Prvi balkanski rat''; bg, Балканска война; el, Αʹ Βαλκανικός πόλεμος; tr, Birinci Balkan Savaşı) lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and invo ...

. The city was occupied by the Greek army between 1920 and 1922, before becoming part of the Modern Turkish Republic.

Economy

The economy of Lüleburgaz is mainly based on the industrial sector and agriculture. There are various factories around the city.

Pharmaceutical industry

Pharmaceutical companies such as

Sanofi-Aventis Sanofi S.A. is a French multinational pharmaceutical and healthcare company headquartered in Paris, France. Originally, the corporation was established in 1973 and merged with Synthélabo in 1999 to form Sanofi-Synthélabo. In 2004, Sanofi-Syn ...

, Deva Holding A.S. and Zentiva have their main manufacturers within the urban area of Lüleburgaz.

Agriculture

Crops widely grown around Lüleburgaz include wheat, corn and sunflowers, with the latter being one of the symbols of the city. Trakya Birlik, with its headquarters in the city, is one of Turkey's main sunflower oil producers.

Glass production

Şişecam, Turkey's leading glass producer, has a factory in Lüleburgaz. as does its East Thracian division Trakya Cam.

Sport

Founded in 2007, the women's football club, Düvenciler Lisesispor, played in the

Turkish Women's First Football League The Turkish Women's Football Super League ( tr, Kadınlar Süper Ligi), formerly the First Women's Football League (also known as the ''Turkcell Women's Football Super League'' for sponsorship reasons), is the top level women's football league of ...

after promotion from the Second League. In 2011 the team changed its name to Lüleburgaz 39 Spor and its colours from yellow-black to red-green. The club ended its participation in the league in the 2013-14 season.

Culture

The city and the Battle of Lüleburgas feature in Marcel Proust's '' Time Regained'', the final chapter of ''

Remembrance of Things Past ''In Search of Lost Time'' (french: À la recherche du temps perdu), first translated into English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'', and sometimes referred to in French as ''La Recherche'' (''The Search''), is a novel in seven volumes by French ...

'', published in 1927. The festival of

koliada Koliada or koleda (Cyrillic: коляда, коледа, колада, коледе) is the traditional Slavic name for the period from Christmas to Epiphany or, more generally, to Slavic Christmas-related rituals, some dating to pre-Christian ...

is historically celebrated in the city in the month of January.

Media companies

The city of Lüleburgaz is home to several local media agencies including the centre-left Lüleburgaz Görünüm Gazetesi and Lüleburgaz Haber.

Politics

Lüleburgaz is one of the most pro-European cities of Turkey; mayoral candidates advocating tighter integration with the European Union dominate during elections. Historically, the centre-left, secular and pro-European Republican People's Party (CHP) has dominated city politics. In the 2017 Turkish constitutional referendum, 72.89% of the population of Lüleburgaz voted "no". In the

2018 Turkish general election General elections were held in Turkey on 24 June 2018. Presidential elections were held to elect the President of Turkey using a two-round system. Parliamentary elections took place to elect 600 Members of Parliament to the Grand National Assem ...

the most popular party was the CHP which received 51.38% of the vote. The

liberal democratic Liberal democracy is the combination of a liberal political ideology that operates under an indirect democratic form of government. It is characterized by elections between multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into di ...

Nation Alliance received 64.80% of the votes in the city. In the

2019 Turkish local elections The Turkish local elections of 2019 were held on Sunday 31 March 2019 throughout the 81 provinces of Turkey. A total of 30 metropolitan and 1,351 district municipal mayors, alongside 1,251 provincial and 20,500 municipal councillors were elected, ...

the most popular candidate was Murat Gerenli of the CHP which received 66.55% of the vote.

Famous residents

* Ahmet Özacar, Turkish footballer *

Candan Erçetin Candan Erçetin (; born 10 February 1961) is a Turkish singer-songwriter. Over the twenty five years of her singing career, she has been recognized for preparing and singing songs about human life. Despite the fact that she made her albums with ...

, Turkish singer-songwriter of Kosovar-Macedonian descent that represented Turkey in the

Eurovision Song Contest 1986 The Eurovision Song Contest 1986 was the 31st edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Bergen, Norway, following the country's victory at the with the song " La det swinge" by Bobbysocks! Organised by the European Broadcast ...

, recipient of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for her contributions to France–Turkey relations

Twin towns – sister cities

Lüleburgaz is twinned with: * Silistra * Popovo

References

Bibliography

Bergulae
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography
Arcadiopolis
founded by

External links

Official Website of the City of Lüleburgaz
{{DEFAULTSORT:Luleburgaz Populated places in Kırklareli Province Districts of Kırklareli Province