The Hızırbey arasta, or bedesten, stands on Cumhuriyet Meydanı in the centre of Kırklareli, built against the Hızırbey bath as part of a complex that also includes a mosque. Köse Mihalzade Hızırbey had it put up in 1383 — 785 in the Hijri calendar — as a commercial building, and under the Ottomans it was where gold, silver and other valuables were bought and sold. Both its inscription and its endowment deed survive.
The plan is a T, roofed by a dome in the middle with vaults on three sides of it, and the west side abuts the bath. The walls are built in two stages: cut küfeki stone below, and above it cut küfeki with brick courses between. Inside, the undersides of the dome and vaults are plastered and painted with hand-drawn decoration, while the walls are left in pointed masonry.
It is still a bedesten. The General Directorate of Foundations, which owns it, repaired the building in 2007, and it is in good condition; the shops inside are mostly haberdashers today.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Kırklareli as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 3 °C in January to 23.9 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August and September; rainfall is heaviest in December (70 mm) and lightest in August (21 mm). Long-term means for 1959-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
