Silivri

Silivri lies on the northern shore of the Sea of Marmara, west of Constantinople. Known to the Greeks as Selymbria, the town occupied a steep coastal height and guarded an important road through Thrace. Its fortifications were repaired under successive Byzantine emperors, while its harbour served travellers and commerce along the coast.

During the Byzantine civil wars, John Kantakouzenos strengthened Selymbria's walls and allied himself with the Ottoman ruler Orhan, who married his daughter Theodora here in 1346. The Ottomans captured the town in 1399 but returned it to Byzantium in 1403. Selymbria held out during the siege of Constantinople in 1453 and surrendered after the capital fell. Under Ottoman rule the architect Sinan built a long bridge at Silivri in the sixteenth century.