Hrazgrad

Hrazgrad lies in the valley of the Beli Lom in northeastern Bulgaria, near the remains of the Roman town of Abritus. There, in AD 251, Gothic forces defeated a Roman army and killed the emperors Decius and Herennius Etruscus. A settlement called Hrazgrad grew in the region during the Second Bulgarian Empire; under the Ottomans it became known as Hezargrad.

In the sixteenth century Grand Vizier İbrahim Pasha endowed a mosque and school in the town. The great domed mosque was completed under Mahmud Pasha in 1616, according to an inscription. When Evliya Çelebi visited in 1652, he described a richly decorated building surrounded by charitable institutions, including a kitchen, schools and a bathhouse. An inn and many of the town's shops also belonged to the endowment.