Mürefte is a neighbourhood of the municipality and district of Şarköy,

Tekirdağ Province Tekirdağ Province (, ) is a province and metropolitan municipality of Turkey. Its area is 6,190 km2, and its population is 1,142,451 (2022). It is located in the East Thrace region of the country, also known as European Turkey, one of only t ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. Its population is 2,412 (2022). Before the 2013 reorganisation, it was a town (''

belde Belde (literally "town", also known as ''kasaba'') means "large village with a municipality" in Turkish language, Turkish. All Turkish province centers and district centers have municipalities, but the Villages of Turkey, villages are usually too ...

''). It is on the

Sea of Marmara The Sea of Marmara, also known as the Sea of Marmora or the Marmara Sea, is a small inland sea entirely within the borders of Turkey. It links the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea via the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, separating Turkey's E ...

about 51 km southwest of

Tekirdağ Tekirdağ () is a city in northwestern Turkey. It is located on the north coast of the Sea of Marmara, in the region of East Thrace. The city forms the urban part of the Süleymanpaşa district, with a population of 186,421 in 2022. Tekirdağ ...

. The early history of this town is not known. It is first mentioned in connection with an earthquake which destroyed it in the year 1063. It was visited by John Cantacuzene about 1350. After the population exchange some Megleno-Romanian families were settled.

Ecclesiastical history

The original

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

was in Thracia Prima, a

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Catholic Church, a suffragan bishop leads a diocese within an ecclesiastical province other than the principal diocese, the metropolitan archdiocese; the diocese led ...

of Heraclea Perinthos. A diocese of Peristatis (modern Şarköy) was established by 1170. The see was later transferred to Myriophyton, and renamed Peristasis and Myriophyton, mentioned first in a ''

Notitia episcopatuum The ''Notitiae Episcopatuum'' (singular: ''Notitia Episcopatuum'') were official documents that furnished for Eastern countries the list and hierarchical rank of the metropolitan and suffragan bishoprics of a church. In the Roman Church (the mos ...

'' of the end of the fifteenth century. In the sixteenth century Myriophytum displaced Peristasis, and the diocese took the name of Myriophyturn and Peristasis. According to the Ottoman population statistics of 1914, the ''

kaza A kaza (, "judgment" or "jurisdiction") was an administrative divisions of the Ottoman Empire, administrative division of the Ottoman Empire. It is also discussed in English under the names district, subdistrict, and juridical district. Kazas co ...

'' of Mürefte had a population of 16,876 consisting of 14,146

Greeks Greeks or Hellenes (; , ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Greece, Greek Cypriots, Cyprus, Greeks in Albania, southern Albania, Greeks in Turkey#History, Anatolia, parts of Greeks in Italy, Italy and Egyptian Greeks, Egypt, and to a l ...

(83.84%) and 2,730

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

(16.18%). The

Greek Orthodox Greek Orthodox Church (, , ) is a term that can refer to any one of three classes of Christian Churches, each associated in some way with Greek Christianity, Levantine Arabic-speaking Christians or more broadly the rite used in the Eastern Rom ...

diocese became in January 1909 an autocephalous

metropolitan see Metropolitan may refer to: Areas and governance (secular and ecclesiastical) * Metropolitan archdiocese, the jurisdiction of a metropolitan archbishop ** Metropolitan bishop or archbishop, leader of an ecclesiastical "mother see" * Metropolitan ...

, the Metropolitanate of Myriophyton and Peristasis. The Orthodox population of the metropolitanate was evacuated in October 1922, just before the Greco-Turkish population exchange, leaving no Orthodox population since then, but the church continues to appoint titular metropolitans to the see. The last

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

holder of the

titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbi ...

of Myriophytos or Miriofido died in 1932, and the see has been suppressed.

Agriculture

The coastline between

and Şarköy, particularly Mürefte, are notable centers for

viticulture Viticulture (, "vine-growing"), viniculture (, "wine-growing"), or winegrowing is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine ...

and

winemaking Winemaking, wine-making, or vinification is the production of wine, starting with the selection of the fruit, its Ethanol fermentation, fermentation into alcohol, and the bottling of the finished liquid. The history of wine-making stretches over ...

. A well-known wine producer, "Kutman", is located in the village, and maintains a wine museum also.

Notable people

* Aristotelis Kourtidis (1858 – 1928), Greek educator and writer. *

Vasilis Logothetidis Vasilis Logothetidis (Greek: Βασίλης Λογοθετίδης; 1897 – 22 February 1960) was a Greek comedian. He is considered one of the most significant modern Greek actors. Logothetidis was born as Vasilis Tavlaridis (Βασίλης ...

(1897 - 1960), Greek actor.

References

Sources

* The entry cites: *Drakos, ''Thrakika'' (in Greek, Athens, 1892), 72–93. * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Murefte Catholic titular sees in Europe Fishing communities in Turkey Populated coastal places in Turkey Former Greek towns in Turkey Neighbourhoods in Şarköy District