Özet:

Evliya Çelebi's Seyahatname is one of the important geographical, historical and cultural resource of the 17th century. Evliya Çelebi's travel route, the cities he visited along this route and the information he gave about these cities have been the subject of many research, various articles and books which have been presented to researchers. However, in the monographic studies carried out to date, the information given in the Seyahatname about Kırklareli and its surroundings has yet to be the subject of any research. Kırklareli, which can be said to have been under the shadow of Edirne during the Ottoman period and Istanbul today, was referred to as Kırkkilise in the Ottoman period and served as a sanjak. Today, it functions as a city center. Therefore, its situation in the past is different from its current situation. For this reason, when examining how Kırklareli is depicted in Evliya Çelebi's Seyahatname, two different situations are encountered. Today, the province of Kırklareli is composed of Lüleburgaz, Vize, Pınarhisar, Babaeski, Pehlivanköy, Kofçaz and Demirköy districts. However, although the administrative situation may differ from time to time in the Ottoman period, it was a sanjak of the Özü province in the 17th century, when Evliya Çelebi wrote his work. Vize, today a district of Kırklareli, was another sanjak of Özü. This perspective reveals two versions of Kırklareli: The first is Kırkkilise sanjak, a part of which is within the borders of Bulgaria today, and the other is the province of Kırklareli, which has seven districts today. In this study, it has been uncovered the 17th century appearance of the city center and its surroundings of today's Kırklareli has been revealed through Evliya Çelebi's Seyahatname, analyzed the historical, geographical, architectural and cultural information given by Evliya Çelebi about the city has been determined and evaluated by compared it with todays state.