Kırklareli is a province and city in the heart of Turkish Thrace, sharing a long border with Bulgaria in the northwest and hugging the Black Sea coast in the north. The provincial capital — a quiet market town of roughly 100,000 — sits amid rolling farmland and oak forests, while the province itself shelters two of Turkey's most extraordinary natural treasures: the İğneada Longoz Forests, a rare lowland floodplain forest complex designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, and the Dupnisa Cave system, one of the country's most impressive karst caverns. The Black Sea resorts of İğneada and Kıyıköy attract Turkish holidaymakers seeking uncrowded beaches and fresh fish, while the historic Demirköy iron foundry and the walled town of Vize recall a layered past spanning Thracians, Romans, Byzantines, and Ottomans.
Historical timeline
Key moments that shaped Kırklareli.
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1
Odrysian Thracian kingdom controls the region
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2
Roman province of Thracia established; Bizye (Vize) becomes an administrative town
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3
Byzantine Empire inherits the region from Rome
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4
Ottoman forces capture Kırkkilise (Kırklareli) under Murad I
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5
Sokollu Mehmet Pasha builds his külliye complex in Lüleburgaz
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6
Demirköy Iron Foundry constructed to supply Ottoman naval cannons
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7
Bulgaria occupies Kırklareli during First Balkan War
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8
Ottoman forces recover Kırklareli in Second Balkan War
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9
Population exchange; Greek Orthodox communities leave; Turkish Muslims arrive from Greece and Bulgaria
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10
Province develops as agricultural border region; İğneada Longoz designated UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 2003
Historical sites
Places where Kırklareli's past comes alive.