İnecik is a neighbourhood of the municipality and district of

Süleymanpaşa Süleymanpaşa () is a municipality and district of Tekirdağ Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,053 km2, and its population is 215,558 (2022). It covers the city of Tekirdağ and the surrounding countryside. The district and municipality Süley ...

Tekirdağ Province Tekirdağ Province (, ) is a province and metropolitan municipality of Turkey. Its area is 6,190 km2, and its population is 1,142,451 (2022). It is located in the East Thrace region of the country, also known as European Turkey, one of only t ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. Its population is 586 (2022). Its Ottoman-era name was Aynadjik, and its

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

-era name was Chalcis ().

History

On account of its location, it is possible that the town is to be identified with the way-station (''mutatio'') of Bedizum, listed in the late Roman ''

Itinerarium Burdigalense ''Itinerarium Burdigalense'' ("Bordeaux Itinerary"), also known as ''Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum'' ("Jerusalem Itinerary"), is the oldest known Christian '' itinerarium''. It was written by the "Pilgrim of Bordeaux", an anonymous pilgrim from ...

'', and/or the station Bitenas. Chalcis is first attested as a bishopric in the

Second Council of Nicaea The Second Council of Nicaea is recognized as the last of the first seven ecumenical councils by the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church. In addition, it is also recognized as such by Old Catholic Church, Old Catholics and others. ...

in 787, which was attended by its

iconophile Iconodulism (also iconoduly or iconodulia) designates the religious service to icons (kissing and honourable veneration, incense, and candlelight). The term comes from Neoclassical Greek εἰκονόδουλος (''eikonodoulos'') (from – ''i ...

bishop, Sissinios. Another bishop, named Demetrios, is attested through a lead seal dating to the 8th or 9th centuries, and in the 9th century a ''

droungarios A ''droungarios'', also spelled ''drungarios'' (, ) and sometimes anglicized as Drungary, was a military rank of the late Roman and Byzantine empires, signifying the commander of a formation known as '' droungos''. Late Roman and Byzantine army ...

'' named Staurakios or Theophylact. However, the see does not appear in the ''

Notitiae Episcopatuum The ''Notitiae Episcopatuum'' (singular: ''Notitia Episcopatuum'') were official documents that furnished for Eastern countries the list and hierarchical rank of the metropolitan and suffragan bishoprics of a church. In the Roman Church (the mos ...

'' of the

Patriarchate of Constantinople The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (, ; ; , "Roman Orthodox Patriarchate, Ecumenical Patriarchate of Istanbul") is one of the fifteen to seventeen autocephalous churches that together compose the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is headed ...

until the reign of

Leo VI the Wise Leo VI, also known as Leo the Wise (; 19 September 866 – 11 May 912), was Byzantine Emperor from 886 to 912. The second ruler of the Macedonian dynasty (although his parentage is unclear), he was very well read, leading to his epithet. During ...

(). In 1051, a

Pecheneg The Pechenegs () or Patzinaks, , Middle Turkic: , , , , , , ka, პაჭანიკი, , , ; sh-Latn-Cyrl, Pečenezi, separator=/, Печенези, also known as Pecheneg Turks were a semi-nomadic Turkic people from Central Asia who ...

invasion was defeated near the town. In the ''

Partitio Romaniae The ''Partitio terrarum imperii Romaniae'' (Latin for "Partition of the lands of the empire of ''Romania'' .e., the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire, or ''Partitio regni Graeci'' ("Partition of the kingdom of the Greeks"), was a treaty signed a ...

'', the town is listed as part of an ''

episkepsis An ''episkepsis'' ( , pl. ''episkepseis'', ) was a fiscal district in the middle Byzantine Empire (10th–13th centuries). In its strict technical sense, it refers to a domain or other property, in some cases including entire villages or towns, allo ...

'' along with Rhaidestos and

Panion Panion () or Panias (Πανιάς), in early Byzantine times known as Theodosiopolis (Θεοδοσιούπολις) and in later Byzantine and Ottoman times Panidos (Greek: Πάνιδος, Turkish: ''Banıdoz''), was a town in Eastern Thrace on t ...

. In Ottoman times, the settlement was named Aynadjik (Αϊναρτζίκ for the local Greek population), and was visited by the traveller

Evliya Çelebi Dervish Mehmed Zillî (25 March 1611 – 1682), known as Evliya Çelebi (), was an Ottoman Empire, Ottoman explorer who travelled through his home country during its cultural zenith as well as neighboring lands. He travelled for over 40 years, rec ...

, who described it as lying in a wide and fruitful plain with tile-roofed houses. Kara Piri Pasha made several donations there. In , the local agriculture is reported as following a two-year cycle of cultivation followed by pasture. The village remained predominantly Greek-populated until the

population exchange between Greece and Turkey The 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey stemmed from the "Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations" signed at Lausanne, Switzerland, on 30 January 1923, by the governments of Greece and Turkey. It involv ...

in 1923; on its eve, in 1922, there were 1,092 Greeks.

Monuments

The town's old mosque (''Eski Camii'') features four Byzantine-era columns, and its forecourt and garden feature other early and middle Byzantine-era architectural fragments.

Titular see

The diocese of Chalcis was nominally restored in 1933 as a

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 archbi ...

(''Chalcis in

Europa Europa may refer to: Places * Europa (Roman province), a province within the Diocese of Thrace * Europa (Seville Metro), Seville, Spain; a station on the Seville Metro * Europa City, Paris, France; a planned development * Europa Cliffs, Alexan ...

'') by the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, but has remained vacant since.

References

Sources

* {{Süleymanpaşa District Neighbourhoods in Süleymanpaşa District