Uzunköprü (Ergene Köprüsü)

Uzunköprü is an Ottoman stone bridge just north of the district town of the same name, south of Edirne, spanning the Ergene River and the floodplain around it. Its old name is the Ergene Bridge, sources give its Ottoman name as Cisr-i Ergene, and the district takes its name from the bridge. The Culture Portal writes that the bridge was built under Sultan Murad II by the architect Muslihiddin between 1427 and 1443. Ottoman historians differ on the starting year; Hoca Sadeddin Efendi gives 1426-27, while Karaçelebizade Abdülaziz Efendi gives 1427-28. The Edirne Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism states that construction took sixteen years. This area turned into a wide marsh during the Ergene's spring floods, and the earlier wooden bridges were soon destroyed by floods or war. Murad II wanted a stone bridge long and strong enough to cross the whole marsh, so that the army could cross the river in every season on its Rumelian campaigns. The bridge also provided a safe crossing on the road between Gallipoli and Edirne. A mosque, a public kitchen and a madrasa were built at its head together with the bridge, and today's town of Uzunköprü grew up around this core. According to sources the bridge was 1392 metres long with 174 arches when it was first built. Its present length varies from source to source: the Culture Portal gives 1270.41 metres, the provincial culture directorate gives 1272 metres, and a measurement in 2018 found 1306.2 metres. These differences come from arches replaced during repairs and from some of them being buried under the road embankment. According to the provincial culture directorate 164 arches stand today, and the Culture Portal writes that three of the arches are thought to lie under the road leading to the district centre. Whichever measurement is taken, the bridge is regarded as the longest surviving stone bridge in the world. The bridge is built of cut limestone and travertine blocks. According to the Culture Portal, its foundations on alluvial ground rest on an energy-absorbing timber grid system. Most of the arches are two-centred pointed arches, but there are also round and flattened ones. On either side of the large openings over the Ergene's main bed run relief openings that let floodwater through. As you walk along the bridge, look carefully at the keystones and piers, where there are geometric motifs, plant ornaments and animal figures. The provincial culture directorate mentions among these figures a lion symbolising strength and an elephant symbolising long life, and next to the lion figure a woman's head representing the Moon and a tulip motif can also be seen. On the bridge there are two balconies and a triangular inscription kiosk. The bridge has been repaired many times over the centuries; in the 1820s, four arches that had collapsed after earthquakes and floods were replaced by three large ones. During the repair between 1964 and 1971 the bridge was widened and covered with concrete, which damaged its historic fabric. On the fountain at the head of the bridge, which was later moved, there is a new marble inscription standing in for Sultan Mahmud II's repair inscription. For many years the highway linking Edirne to the Aegean ran over this bridge, and when a new bridge opened nearby in the early 2010s heavy vehicles were banned from it. In 2015 the bridge was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List. After cracks appeared in the stones, it was closed to traffic in the autumn of 2021 and taken into a comprehensive restoration. The aim of this work is to uncover some of the buried arches and to replace the concrete surface with stone. Because the completion date of the restoration has been postponed, check with local sources before you go whether you can walk on the bridge. To understand the bridge properly you need to see it from the side, from the meadows on the bank, where the line of arches looks like a single line stretching to the horizon. Walking north along the bank from the town end lets you see how the shape and size of the arches change. For photographs, shooting the arches from a low angle in the meadow is the frame that best shows the length of the bridge. Evliya Çelebi, who came here in 1658, described the bridge as two thousand paces long. The Culture Portal notes that the bridge is 65 kilometres from Edirne by road, so you can plan the visit as a half-day trip. A stop in town that complements the bridge is the Uzunköprü City Museum, opened in 2013 in the former Tekel administration building. Information panels on the museum walls tell the story of the town's founding and its historic buildings. The museum is run by the Uzunköprü Municipality; check its visiting days on the provincial culture directorate's page before you go.