CEE/Newsletter/Newsroom/Wikimedians Discovering Kırklareli

Wikimedians Discovering Kırklareli

By: User:Sadrettin, User:Basak

Have you heard of Kırklareli? It’s a city in the European part of Türkiye, near the borders with Bulgaria and Greece. Inhabited since ancient times, Kırklareli is full of cultural traces left by past civilizations—many of which remain little known to the world today. In the last week of May, User:Sadrettin from the Wikimedia Community User Group Türkiye (WMTR) organized a 3-day trip to Kırklareli to explore and document these underrepresented heritage sites for Wikimedia projects.

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This trip was part of the preparations for Wiki Loves Monuments, which the user group plans to organize in Türkiye for the first time in 2025. As the lead of this project, User:Sadrettin has been working on compiling a comprehensive list of cultural assets in the country and creating corresponding Wikidata items, including their coordinates. This field trip, supported by a CEE Hub Microgrant, was a step toward that goal.

Map of places visited

Accompanied by an experienced heritage photographer, Sadrettin visited numerous historical and cultural monuments in Kırklareli. Together, they took over 1,000 photographs of more than 100 cultural sites, created new Wikidata items, prepared categories on Wikimedia Commons, and are now working on uploading and curating the content.

He shared a few key learnings from the trip:

Re-photographing is important

Before the trip, we prepared a list of cultural assets and checked which ones lacked photos on Wikimedia Commons. We planned our route to prioritize those. But during the trip, we realized how valuable it is to re-photograph assets that already have images. Photos taken in different years help track changes over time. For this reason, we tried to visit every site on our list, not just those missing photos.

Commons and Wikidata experience is essential

Uploading images turned out to be the most time-consuming part. Experienced Wikimedia contributors are better equipped to handle the process—creating Commons categories and linking to Wikidata QIDs can be quite challenging for newcomers.

Photo trips raise local awareness about Wikimedia

Our cameras attracted a lot of attention! Local residents showed genuine interest in what we were doing. It became clear that photography isn’t just for documentation—it also sparks conversations and increases awareness of Wikimedia projects.

Don’t miss chances to document intangible heritage

Although our goal was to photograph tangible cultural assets, we unexpectedly encountered elements of intangible heritage. We attended an open-air wedding, chatted with local vendors, and documented regional food and desserts. These moments added richness to our project.

One of the most striking discoveries of the trip was an Ottoman-era bathhouse that now serves as the municipal council building—a remarkable example of how historical architecture can be adaptively reused.

This journey to Kırklareli was not only an opportunity to enrich Wikimedia projects with valuable content but also to strengthen cooperation and communication between community volunteers. With Wiki Loves Monuments 2025 on the horizon, efforts like this lay the groundwork for broader participation and deeper impact.