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Kırklareli (kɯɾkˈɫaɾeli; Σαράντα Εκκλησιές) is a city in the European part of Turkey. It is the seat of Kırklareli Province and Kırklareli District. Its population is 85,493 (2022). It is not clearly known when the city was founded, nor under what name. The Byzantine Greeks called it Sarànta Ekklisiès (Σαράντα Εκκλησιές, meaning forty churches). In modern Greek it is known with the same name, too. In the 14th century this was translated to Turkish and called Kırk Kilise (40 churches). Following the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923, sanjaks became cities and on December 20, 1924, Kırk Kilise's name was changed to Kırklareli, meaning The Place of the Forties. The denomination Kırklareli was already used years before 1924, for example in the contemporary literature concerning the Balkan Wars of 1912–13. The Bulgarian name of the town is Lòzengrad (Лозенград) which means Vineyard Town. (see also its other names) Ongoing archeological excavations in the city support the claim that the area was the location of one of the first organized settlements on the European continent, with artifacts from the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods. The settlement and its surrounding areas were conquered by the Persians in 513–512 BC, during the reign of King Darius I. In 914 during the Bulgarian invasion in Adrianople led by Simeon I, the settlement was captured by the Bulgarians and was under Bulgarian rule until 1003 when it was lost to the Byzantines. The Ottoman Turks took the city and its region from the Byzantines in 1363, during the reign of Sultan Murad I. The city was damaged during the Greek War of Independence (1821–1829). According to the 1878 record "Ethnography of the Wilayahs Adrianopol, Monastir and Thessaloniki" Kırk Kilise was inhabited by 6,700 Bulgarians, 2,850 Greeks, and 2,700 belonging to other ethnic groups. In 1906, the Diocese of Saranda Ekklisies was detached from the Metropolis of Adrianople and was elevated to the status of Metropolis.

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Kırklareli

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