Bedesten

The places where the sale of certain items, especially jewelry, from harnesses to weapons, from precious fabrics to diamonds, used to be called bedesten.When bedesten is mentioned in Edirne, the roads lead to Goldsmiths(Kuyumcular) Street, which already shows itself immediately with its crowds in the Sabuni quarter in the center of the city. Bedesten, one of the biggest shopping centers and one of the icons of Edirne, was built by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed Çelebi in 1418.As the first covered bazaar of Edirne, the historical Bazaar, which has survived from the Ottoman Empire for 6 centuries, has 14 domes covered with lead. There are 54 shops in total on the four facades of the bedesten.In addition, Bedesten was built as a foundation to provide income to the Old Mosque(Eski Camii).At the same time, the structure has a pointed-arched window under each dome.Evliya Çelebi's work also includes a section that mentions a bazaar in which “diamonds and jewelry are worth several Egyptian treasures and are guarded by sixty night watchmen.” The Bedesten Bazaar, one of the artifacts of the rising period of the Ottoman Empire, is known as one of the most important architectural works that has survived to the present day.