Edirne is thought, on the historical record, to have first housed a Thracian settlement. In the 2nd century AD the Roman emperor Hadrian rebuilt it and it began to be called after him — Hadrianopolis. The 2nd and 3rd centuries were a bright period; from the 4th the city became a battlefield, and it stayed in Byzantine hands through internal wars and the Gothic, Hun and Bulgar raids.
The Turks took the city in 1361. Murad I changed its name to Edirne, and in 1365 it became the second capital after Bursa. For close to a century it was the Ottoman capital, and it grew fast. When İstanbul was taken in 1453 Edirne handed the title over, but it remained the empire's second centre and went on developing as a city of learning, culture and art.
