Planning and Protecting Historical Buildings in Kaleiçi Region of Edirne/Turkey

Over a long history, the city of Edirne has been developing as an important settlement centre due to its geopolitical location. The importance of Edirne increased especially after it was conquered by the Ottoman Turks and served as the capital city of the Ottoman Empire for a long period of time. It is city of a peculiar character and identy with its many monuments and samples of civil architecture. Kaleiçi, as the first settlement nucleus of Edirne, has still many historic houses which could manage to survive, reflecting the social and cultural life of the city around the end of 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries. The dwellings those reached up to the present in Kaleiçi neigborhood, which can be considered as the center of settlement in Edirne, are very few in number. The conditions that expedited the deformed look of present Edirne are as follows: the regulations which led way to the new reconstruction after the earthquakes and fires, the illegal practises in the area, the dense commerce in Saraçlar Avenue, in turn, the deterioration of the characteristics of the plan and facade of the area and problems resuled from changes in the dwelling owners. Following a brief history of Edirne Kaleiçi, the objectives of this study are to determine and classify the characteristic of the plansand facades of traditional dwellings and to develop suggestions for the preservation of these houses and the spatial qualities of whole fabric of the area.