Macedonian Tower

The Macedonian Tower in Edirne, Turkey, is the sole surviving corner bastion of the Roman fortress built by Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD when he founded the city as Hadrianopolis, capital of the Roman province of Thrace. The rectangular castrum featured towers on all four corners and nine documented gates. In 1884 a wooden clock tower was built atop the Roman tower, later replaced in stone, but it was severely damaged by the 1953 earthquake and destroyed with dynamite that same year. Excavations from 1990 to 2003 uncovered Roman castrum wall foundations, a 1st-century pottery kiln, and a Byzantine basilica.