Soufli

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Soufli (Greek Σουφλί, Bulgarian Софлу, Turkish Sofulu ) is a municipality in the Greek Western Thrace. The small town of about 3,800 inhabitants with Soufli forms the administrative center and the center of the community. In its present form the municipality in 2010 was formed by the amalgamation of the municipalities Orfeas and Tychero.

Location

The municipality is located in the extreme east of the Soufli East Macedonia and Thrace region. To the north it borders on the Bulgarian oblast Haskovo and the community Didymoticho, east of the Evros forms the border with the Turkish province of Edirne. In the south, bordering the municipality of Alexandroupoli, in the west, the municipalities Arriana and Maroneia - Sapes to Soufli.

History

The area by the river Evros is the oldest European location of silk production. Under Ottoman rule in the 19th century, the city reached its zenith when she 1872 the railway line Dedeağaç - Edirne was with the Industrial Revolution and the connection to the thriving center of sericulture and silk production. The production grew after the turn of the 20th century, up to 40 tons of silk threads annually. Almost the entire population lived on silk production, mulberry forests dominated the riparian zones of Evros. A museum in Soufli dedicated to the documentation of this industry today.

The Balkan wars led to the economic decline of the region. This was reinforced by the fact that Soufli when it came in 1923 with Western Thrace to Greece and Thrace was divided not only be east of the river Evros located inland - about lost, but also the navigable link to the Aegean - with the necessary for sericulture plantations of mulberry trees the Evros, which had now become a border river. Added to this was the advance of industrial synthetic fibers. Today there are still about 50 people involved in the production of silk.

In 1908 the city had 12,000 to 13,000 inhabitants. In addition to the silk production of the vineyard was the second most important economic sector.

Sight

In Soufli is a silk museum.