Tsepina ( bg, Цепина) or Tzepaina ( el, Τζέπαινα) was a castle and town in the western Rhodope mountains, southern

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

, now in ruins. It is from the Dorkovo village in the north-eastern part of the

Chepino Valley The Chepino Valley (), or Chepino ( bg, Чепино, link=no), is the largest valley in the Rhodope Mountains in southern Bulgaria. It is situated along the course of the Chepino River near the Batak Mountains in the northwestern part of the ...

. Tsepina is above sea level. The town was built on a steep height at above sea level. Its outer walls closed an area of 25 decares and was dominated by a citadel at the top of the cliff. The foundations of three churches have been excavated as well as four large water storage tanks up to deep.

History

The site was already settled in prehistoric times. Remnants of pottery from the 4th–6th century and houses and a large three-

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, pa ...

d church in the area of the citadel point to a settlement during early

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

times. The

Bulgarians Bulgarians ( bg, българи, Bǎlgari, ) are a nation and South Slavic ethnic group native to Bulgaria and the rest of Southeast Europe. Etymology Bulgarians derive their ethnonym from the Bulgars. Their name is not completely underst ...

took the castle in the 9th century but with the end of the

First Bulgarian Empire The First Bulgarian Empire ( cu, блъгарьско цѣсарьствиѥ, blagarysko tsesarystviye; bg, Първо българско царство) was a medieval Bulgar- Slavic and later Bulgarian state that existed in Southeastern Eur ...

in the beginning of the 11th century the Byzantines conquered it. The other buildings and pottery found on the site date to the 12th–14th centuries, when the fortress was repeatedly fought over between the Byzantines and Bulgarians due to its strategic location. During the reign of the Bulgarian emperor Kaloyan (1197–1207), the fortress was the residence of his nephew, the despot Alexius Slav. In 1246 it fell, along with the other fortresses in the region, to the

Empire of Nicaea The Empire of Nicaea or the Nicene Empire is the conventional historiographic name for the largest of the three Byzantine Greek''A Short history of Greece from early times to 1964'' by W. A. Heurtley, H. C. Darby, C. W. Crawley, C. M. Woodhous ...

, but Bulgarian emperor

Michael II Asen Michael II Asen ( bg, Михаил II Асен; 1239 – December 1256/January 1257) was emperor (tsar) of Bulgaria from 1246 to 1256 or 1257. He was the son of Ivan Asen II and Irene Komnene Doukaina. He succeeded his half-brother, Kaliman I ...

(1246–1256) recovered it soon after the death of the Nicaean emperor

John III Vatatzes John III Doukas Vatatzes, Latinized as Ducas Vatatzes ( el, Ιωάννης Δούκας Βατάτζης, ''Iōannēs Doukas Vatatzēs'', c. 1192 – 3 November 1254), was Emperor of Nicaea from 1221 to 1254. He was succeeded by his son, known ...

in 1254. The Nicaeans launched several unsuccessful attempts to recapture the fortress, but in 1256 Michael II Asen ceded it by treaty to Vatatzes' son and successor, Theodore II Laskaris. The fortress remained in Byzantine hands thereafter, forming, along with nearby Stenimachos, its own province, until it was ceded in 1343 or 1344 to the Bulgarians during the

Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347 The Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347, sometimes referred to as the Second Palaiologan Civil War, was a conflict that broke out in the Byzantine Empire after the death of Andronikos III Palaiologos over the guardianship of his nine-year-old son ...

, when the regency council tried to obtain Bulgarian support against the usurper

John VI Kantakouzenos John VI Kantakouzenos or Cantacuzene ( el, , ''Iōánnēs Ángelos Palaiológos Kantakouzēnós''; la, Johannes Cantacuzenus; – 15 June 1383) was a Byzantine Greek nobleman, statesman, and general. He served as grand domestic under ...

. Around 1373 it was seized by the Turks under the command of Daud Pasha, after a bloody nine-month siege. The fortress fell only after the Ottomans cut off the water-conduit.Шишков, Ст. Цит. съч., с. 64 Soon after that it was abandoned by its inhabitants and fell into ruin, although one of the churches continued to be used until the 17th century, possibly as part of a monastery (whence the local names ''Metoha'', '

metochion A ''metochion'' or ''metochi'' ( gr, μετόχιον, metóchion or gr, μετόχι, metóchi; russian: подворье, podvorie) is an ecclesiastical embassy church within Eastern Orthodox tradition. It is usually from one autocephalous or ...

', or ''Manastirat'', 'monastery', for the settlement).

Footnotes

References

Tsepina

Сырку, П. Старинная Чепинская крепость у с. Доркова и два византийских рельефа из Чепина (в Болгарии). – Византийский временник, Т. V (1898), 603-617
* {{Castles in Bulgaria Castles in Bulgaria Buildings and structures in Pazardzhik Province Rhodope Mountains Medieval Thrace