Dbilin

Dbilin stands on the Tundzha in the Thracian plain, where a medieval fortress guarded an important road through the valley. The town was known to the Byzantines as Diampolis and later to the Ottomans as Yanboli. Its markets drew on the surrounding agricultural country, while the river and roads connected it with Adrianople and Constantinople.

In 1373 Ottoman forces under Timurtaş Bey took the fortress after a long siege. The town became a base for further campaigns, and surviving inhabitants included voynuks who tended horses and served the army in return for tax privileges. Under Bayezid II, construction began around 1509 on a large covered market, or bezisten. Shops and workshops gathered in and around it, making the building a centre of the town's commercial life.