Getting there
Edirne sits in the far northwest corner of Turkey, 230 km from Istanbul on a motorway that runs straight across Thrace. Buses leave Istanbul's Esenler and Alibeyköy terminals every half hour in daytime and take two and a half to three hours. There is no useful train and no scheduled flight; the small airport handles charters at best.
If you drive, the road is dual carriageway the whole way, and Edirne's center is compact enough to leave the car for the weekend. On festival weekend the last stretch into town crawls, and parking near Sarayiçi is chaos. Arrive on Thursday, before the wrestlers do.
From the bus terminal, a city bus or taxi reaches the center in fifteen minutes. The center is walkable: Selimiye, the bazaars, most hotels and the river bridges lie within a kilometer of each other. Sarayiçi is the exception, a thirty-minute walk north along the Tunca.
Two borders sit within easy reach, Kapıkule into Bulgaria at 7 km and Pazarkule into Greece at about the same. Both are working crossings rather than tourist attractions, and both need the right visa. The history of the festival explains why the border is here at all: the wrestling moved east when the frontier did.
See also: When the festival happens, Tickets and seating.
Sarayiçi
Sarayiçi means "inside the palace," and the name is literal. The wrestling field occupies part of the grounds of the Edirne Palace, the Ottoman court's home from the 1450s until the sultans moved to Istanbul, and its summer residence for two centuries after. Almost nothing of the palace stands; a gate, a kitchen block and the shell of the justice pavilion are what remain.
The field itself lies on an island in the Tunca river, reached by stone bridges from the town side. This is the Er Meydanı, the field of men.
Here the caldrons of oil are set out. Here the bouts are fought.
Outside the festival it is a public park, green and empty, and the concrete stands look oversized.
At the northern end stands the Balkan War memorial, a tall monument to the soldiers who died in the siege of 1912 and 1913. It is worth ten minutes. Edirne fell in that siege, was retaken within months, and the wrestling continued through both.
The oiling caldrons are stored here between festivals and can sometimes be seen behind the stands. The reed salaşpur stands that surrounded the field until 1985 are gone; the museum in town keeps photographs of them. Come in the morning if you want the island to yourself.
Selimiye and the old town
The Selimiye Mosque was finished in 1575 by Sinan, who called it his masterwork, and UNESCO added it to the World Heritage list in 2011. The dome is 31 meters across, held on eight piers, and the four minarets are among the tallest of the Ottoman period. It is open outside prayer times and free to enter; dress modestly and leave shoes at the door.
Below the mosque, the Ali Paşa covered bazaar, also by Sinan, runs for a full block and sells everything from cheese to broom handles. The old Edirne of narrow streets and timber houses lies to the east, around the Kaleiçi quarter, where the graves of the head wrestlers Adalı Halil and Kara Emin are visited on the festival's opening Friday.
The bridges and the rivers
Edirne stands where the Tunca, the Meriç and the Arda meet. The Meriç bridge, a long stone span from the 1840s, is where the town walks in the evening, and the tea gardens on the far bank look back at the Selimiye skyline. The Tunca bridges lead to Sarayiçi.
The Old Mosque of 1414 and the Üç Şerefeli Mosque of 1447, with its three-balconied minaret, stand a few minutes' walk from Selimiye. The three together show the whole development of Ottoman architecture in a single afternoon, from the early capital to Sinan.
See also: Watching the final on television, The cazgır's call, How the years are counted.
Kırkpınar House museum
The Kırkpınar House, the Kırkpınar Evi, opened in 2001 at the 640th festival in a renovated old house in the municipality garden. It is the only museum devoted to oil wrestling, and it is small enough to see in an hour. Entry is free or nominal, and it is open on weekdays and most weekends outside the festival.
Inside are the things the festival is made of: kispet worn by famous wrestlers, the sashes of past ağas, and a century of photographs.
There are golden belts in the main case. Beside them sit zembil bags and clay oil jugs, the everyday kit of the sport.
The photographs are the reason to come. They show the reed stands, the bare field, and head wrestlers whose names the cazgır still calls out in his prayer.
The staff are municipality employees rather than guides, but they will open cases and answer questions in Turkish. A visit here before the weekend turns the oiling from spectacle into something you can read. The same goes for the peşrev, once you have seen the old photographs of it.
The museum is where you learn the words. The field is where you hear them.
Where to stay
Edirne has hotels for a border town, not a resort: a handful of mid-range places in the center, a few renovated houses in the old quarter, business hotels on the Istanbul road, and pensions near the university. Outside the festival there is always room. On the wrestling weekend everything within walking distance of Selimiye is booked months ahead, and prices double.
Stay in the center if you can. The old-town houses are the most atmospheric and the least soundproof; the mid-range hotels near the bazaar are the practical choice. Hotels on the Istanbul road are cheaper and mean a taxi to everything.
Book two nights for the weekend, three if you want Monday for the mosque and the museum. Day trips from Istanbul for the Sunday final are possible on the early bus and the late one. You will see the başpehlivan bout exhausted, though.
What to eat
Edirne's dish is tava ciğer, calf's liver sliced paper-thin, dredged in flour, fried in a shallow pan of hot oil and served with fried dried red peppers and raw onion. Every restaurant in the center makes it and argues about who does it best. Eat it at lunch, with ayran, and do not expect a menu beyond it.
The sweets are almond paste, badem ezmesi, made by a few old confectioners who have been at it for generations, and deva-i misk helva, a soft sesame halva flavored with musk that was once sold as medicine. Both are sold by the box and both travel. The Edirne white cheese, the local beyaz peynir, and the kavala kurabiyesi almond cookie from across the Greek border round out the table.
Breakfast in Edirne is the long Turkish kind, with cheese, honey, olives and bread, and a few places on the Meriç do it well. The wrestlers eat differently in the weeks before the festival, and their menu of meat, yogurt and honey is a page of its own. In the stands, vendors carry tea, ayran, lokum and almond paste, as the festival guide describes.
See also: A year of training, What pehlivan means.
What to bring home
Almond paste and deva-i misk are the Edirne souvenirs, boxed and sealed at the counter. A small kispet-shaped keyring and a photograph of the golden belt are what the festival stalls sell. The town has no tradition of its own baklava or lokum; those belong to Istanbul, and most visitors pass through Istanbul on the way home.
If you do, the shops to know are old. Karaköy Güllüoğlu, in the Karaköy district since 1949, and Hafız Mustafa, founded in 1864, are where Istanbul buys its baklava, and both pack boxes for travel.
For Turkish delight, Hacı Bekir has sold lokum from the same shop since 1777, and Koska, founded in 1907, is the other name on every box. Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi has roasted Turkish coffee near the Spice Bazaar since 1871, and a tin of it is the lightest gift in the bag.
Honey is the other thing worth carrying. Pine honey from the Aegean and chestnut honey from the Black Sea coast are the two Turkish kinds with a real reputation, and the wrestlers' table in the pehlivan guide explains why honey sits at the center of it. Buy sealed jars from a proper shop; the roadside stalls on the Istanbul motorway are a gamble.
Beyond Edirne
Istanbul is the obvious excursion and the usual next stop. The bus takes three hours, and the history of the wrestling began, by the legend, on a campaign that passed this way toward Rumelia. The Thrace vineyards south of Edirne, around Kırklareli and Şarköy, have opened tasting rooms in the last decade and make a good Monday.
The Bulgarian border at Kapıkule and the Greek one at Pazarkule are each a short drive, and Plovdiv and Alexandroupoli are day trips for those with the visas. Across the Meriç lies the Karaağaç quarter, with the old railway station that was once the last stop of the Orient Express before the Turkish frontier.
Whatever you do after, come back for the final Sunday. The UNESCO listing put Kırkpınar on the world's heritage map in 2010, but the festival does not travel. It happens here, on the island, once a year, and the seven guides on this site exist to get you to the right seat.
See also: The thirteen categories, The referees, Who writes this site.
Questions
How do I get from Istanbul to Edirne?
By bus from the Esenler or Alibeyköy terminals, two and a half to three hours on the 230-kilometer motorway, with departures every half hour in daytime. By car it is the same road; there is no useful passenger train and no scheduled flights.
Where exactly is the Kırkpınar field?
At Sarayiçi, on an island in the Tunca river on the northern edge of town, inside the grounds of the ruined Ottoman palace. It is a thirty-minute walk or a short taxi ride from the Selimiye Mosque.
How many days should I stay?
Two nights for the wrestling weekend, three if you want to see Selimiye, the old town and the museum without a crowd. Book months ahead for the festival dates.
What is Edirne famous for eating?
Tava ciğer, thin slices of liver fried in oil and served with dried peppers, and badem ezmesi, an almond paste made by a handful of old confectioners. Deva-i misk helva and the local white cheese come next.
Can I visit Greece or Bulgaria from Edirne?
Yes. The Kapıkule crossing into Bulgaria is 7 kilometers away and the Pazarkule crossing into Greece is about the same, though both need the right visa and, on festival weekend, patience.
Is the Kırkpınar House museum open all year?
Yes, on weekdays and most weekends, with free or nominal entry. It is small and takes under an hour, and it is the best way to see kispet, belts and old photographs up close outside the festival.