Velbužd

Velbužd lies in a valley of western Bulgaria, where the ancient town of Pautalia grew around a Thracian settlement. Under Roman rule it possessed a fortified city and a shrine to Asclepius, the god of healing. The Slavic name Velbužd appears in a charter of the Byzantine emperor Basil II in 1019. Bulgaria and Serbia later contested this mountain town, and a Serbian army defeated the Bulgarians nearby in 1330.

In the later fourteenth century the district belonged to the brothers Jovan and Konstantin Dejanović, rulers of lands along the upper Struma and eastern Macedonia. They became Ottoman vassals as Ottoman power advanced through the Balkans. After Konstantin's death in 1395 the town passed under Ottoman rule; its later name, Köstendil, preserves the memory of his lordship.