Restoration efforts at Muradiye Mevlevihanesi are key to reestablishing Edirne, northwestern Türkiye, as a cultural hub, a local academic said.

Assoc. Prof. Hasan Ali Cengiz of Trakya University’s Roman Language and Culture Research Institute told reporters Wednesday that the city, Ottoman capital for 92 years, has long been a "city of culture.”

"Muradiye Mevlevihanesi holds an important place in Edirne’s cultural history,” he said. Built by Sultan Murad II, it was the third major Mevlevi lodge of the Ottoman period.

A Mevlevihane is a dervish lodge linked to the Mevlevi Sufi order. The lodge, built in the garden of Muradiye Mosque, included rooms for sheikhs, student housing, a library, a school, and a soup kitchen that supplied bread and, on Thursdays, rice pudding and pilaf for local residents.

The structure fell into ruin in the early republic, briefly served as a primary school in 1925, and was later demolished.

"Once fully restored, it will become both a museum and a venue for sema, the spiritual ritual combining music, prayer, and whirling dance,” Cengiz said, calling the project a "crucial step” in reviving Edirne’s cultural legacy.