Lardeya

Lardeya was a fortress in eastern Thrace, between Diampolis and Goloe. Founded in the late Roman period, it stood in a district repeatedly contested by Bulgaria and Byzantium. Anna Komnene recorded that her father, Emperor Alexios I, stayed here for forty days during his campaign against the Pechenegs in 1088. Bulgarian and Byzantine rulers continued to exchange control of the fortress in the centuries that followed; after the Bulgarian victory at Rusokastro in 1332 it was again Bulgarian. The Ottomans captured Diampolis and the neighbouring fortresses, including Lardeya, in 1373.