Kırklareli

Kırklareli () 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).

==Name== It is not known when the city was founded, nor under what name, but local tradition holds that the earliest settlers were Thracian tribes who established a fortified hilltop village surrounded by vineyards and shrines to the sun god Sabazios. The Byzantine Greeks called it Saranta Ekklisies (, meaning "forty churches"). According to folklore, a ring of wooden chapels once stood on the ridge above the settlement, which may have inspired the name. In modern Greek it is known by the same name. 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)