Edirne Palace

Edirne Sarayı was the old imperial palace of Edirne, where Mehmet the Conqueror was born in 1432; when he succeeded as sultan in 1451 he enlarged and embellished it ¹. The book quotes Kritoboulos of Imbros describing how Mehmet adorned it in his first year: a splendid palace on the Hebrus river resplendent with gold, silver, sculpture and painting, ringed by gardens of fruit trees, animals and birds ¹.

Mehmet and his successors kept spending as much time there as they could even after Istanbul became the capital, and Süleyman commissioned Sinan to build two palatial kiosks there, Adalet Kasrı and Terazi Kasrı ². Mehmet IV (r. 1648–87) virtually abandoned Istanbul and spent most of his reign in the palace, hunting the Edirne countryside while grand vezirs governed ³. The palace was destroyed in 1877 when the Russian army captured Edirne; today only four ruined structures remain at Sarayiçi, one of them restored — Adalet Kasrı, one of Sinan's two pavilions for Süleyman ².

• Source read: Freely, A History of Ottoman Architecture (2011), pp. 103–104 (Edirne Sarayı).
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