Gelibolu (tur. Gelibolu) is a city and district in the European part of Turkey, on the Gallipoli peninsula; are included in the Canakkale silt. The population of the city, located on the banks of the Dardanelles, is 29 thousand people (2016).
It is the largest city of the Gallipoli peninsula.
By 2023, as part of the construction of the transport ring around the Sea of ​​Marmara, it is planned to build the Canakkale-1915 bridge across the Dardanelles, which will connect the cities of Lapseki (Balikesir province) and Gelibolu.

Kallipol
The city, founded in the 5th century BC, remained Byzantine until 1354 and was called Kallipolis (ancient Greek Καλλίπολις, Latin Callipolis). The meaning of the name, most likely, is “city by the strait” (Old Greek κλείς “strait” and πόλις “city”).
In 324, near Kallipolis, a naval battle took place between Licinius and Crispus. According to Theophanes, in 443 Attila advanced south to this city. Justinian I, in case of new barbarian invasions, ordered to surround it with a wall.
The crusaders considered Kallipolis as a city lying at the crossing to Asia Minor. During the Fourth Crusade, the Venetians established themselves here, but in 1234 John III Vatatzes forced the Latins to leave it. Under the Venetians, the crossing from Kallipolis to Lampsacus was used more widely than the crossing further south, from Abydos to Sest. At the same time, the importance of its port has also grown significantly. In 1304, Callipolis became the base of the Catalan squad of the Almogavars, who ravaged Thrace from here.
In 1331, the Ottomans led by Umur-Beg unsuccessfully tried to capture the city. In 1352, the nearby fortress of Tsimpe submitted to the Turks. And two years later, after an earthquake that destroyed part of its fortifications, Kallipolis also fell. It became the first city captured by the Turks in Europe. In 1366, Kallipolis was recaptured by the crusaders of Amadeus VI of Savoy, but in 1376, Emperor Andronicus IV chose to hand it over to the Sultan again.

Under the Turks
The Turks used Kallipol as a springboard for the conquest of the Balkans. All attempts by the Venetians – both military and diplomatic – to return the city were unsuccessful.
According to the 1878 census, 98,000 Greeks and 35,000 Muslims, including Turks, lived in the city and region of Gallipoli. There were 97 Greek schools in the area. With the outbreak of World War I, persecution and ethnic cleansing of the non-Turkish population began. According to To the Treaty of Sevres in 1920, the city and the region were assigned to Greece. In 1920-1923, parts of the French Expeditionary Corps (500 people) and the 1st Army Corps of the Russian Army under General Wrangel (25,000 people) were stationed here. In fact, in 1921 the city was Russian. The Russians built a narrow-gauge railway from the city to the Buik-Dere river valley, where the Russian units were located. The road to the camps itself was called “General Wrangel Street”. The Greek administration returned the city to its original name, Kallipolis. However, under the Lausanne Accords of 1923, Greece was forced to transfer Eastern Thrace, including Gallipoli, to the Turkish Republic.

Currently
The center of the city is still the old fishing harbor and the square adjacent to it, surrounded by cafes and restaurants. The two bays seem to be separated by a stone tower – the last remaining fragment of its Byzantine fortifications. Currently в ней размещается музей Пири-реиса. During the Russo-Turkish wars, this tower was used as a prison for captive Cossacks. In 1921, during the stay of the Russian army in Gallipoli, it was also used as a guardhouse for Russian soldiers and officers. Most of the houses have preserved their state of a hundred years ago, which attracts tourists here, including those from Russia. The first floor of the houses is stone, the second is wooden. Now the city for the most part serves only the port and the Turkish military base: a tank regiment and a tank repair plant, a gendarmerie and a military training unit. There are several factories for the production of canned sardines. The city has a French military cemetery of the Crimean and First World Wars, which also has a Russian burial.

Famous Natives
Piri Reis (c. 1470-1554), Ottoman navigator and cartographer
Sophia Vembo (1910-1978), Greek singer, muse of Greece in the Italo-Greek War 1940-1941