Guide
The Victory Fountain at Lüleburgaz was built in 1917 — 1333 in the Hijri calendar — while the First World War was still going on, and it has been knocked down and put back up more than once since. It was damaged during the Greek occupation between 1920 and 1922 and faithfully restored in 1962. In 1990 a lorry hit it in a traffic accident and destroyed it, and it was rebuilt again; newspaper records show that rebuilding was paid for by Hacı Adil Bey, governor of Edirne. It once had basins on all four sides with water running into them, but those disappeared in 1944.
The fountain is a rectangular pillar of kufeki stone — a base, a body, pediments and, above the top slab, a small dome with four knobs and a brass crescent at its peak. Each of the four pediments carries an inscription in Ottoman Turkish: on the south, that it is the fathers' gift to their sons; on the north, 10 July 1324 and the words water is life; on the east, do not forget the date 7 July 1329; on the west, Victory Fountain 1333. The dates point to events: 10 July 1324 is 23 July 1908 and the proclamation of the Second Constitutional Era, 7 July 1329 is 20 July 1913 and the liberation of Lüleburgaz from Bulgarian occupation, and the Ministry's text also names 10 July 1331, 1915, for the victory at Gallipoli, though that date is not among the four pediment inscriptions it lists. The fountain was raised as a sign of rejoicing at the town's recovery, at the enemy's withdrawal and at the soldiers' return to barracks, and with its monumental bearing and its inscriptions it is one of the more important structures in the town centre.
