Culture, Sites and Partnership With Europe
Situated near the Greek (7 km) and Bulgarian (20 km) borders, this city is famed for its many mosques, domes and minarets. Adrianople contains the ruins of the ancient palace of the Ottoman Sultans and the Selimiye Mosque, one of the most important monuments in this ancient province; built in 1575 and designed by Turkey's greatest master architect, Mimar Sinan, it has the highest minarets in Turkey, at 70.9 meters and a cupola three or four feet higher than that of Hagia Sophia Mosque in Istanbul. Carrying the name of the then reigning the Ottoman Sultan Selim II, this mosque represents Turkish marble handicrafts and it is covered with valuable tiles and fine paintings.
Another notable building is the Trakya University's Bayezid II Külliye Health Museum, an important monument with its complex construction comprising many facilities used in those times.
Besides the mosques, there are different sites to be visited in Edirne, all reflecting its rich past. The most prominent place being the Edirne Palace, which was the "Palace of the Empire" built during the reign of Murad II. There are caravansaries, like the Rustem Pasha and Ekmekcioglu Ahmet Pasha caravansaries, which were designed to host travelers, in the 16th century.
A cultural partnership with Lörrach in Germany has been started in 2006. The goal is to exchange pupils and students to improve their cultural skills and understanding.
Read more about this topic: Edirne
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—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)