Tsepina was a castle and town in the western Rhodope

Rhodope

Rhodope may mean:* Queen Rhodope, a figure of Greek mythology* Rhodope Mountains, in Bulgaria and Greece* Rhodope Prefecture, of Greece* Rhodope * 166 Rhodope, an asteroid...

 mountains, southern Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

, now in ruins. It is located at 6 km from the Dorkovo

Dorkovo

Dorkovo is a village in the Rakitovo municipality, Pazardzhik Province, western Bulgaria. The population of the village is 2,955.-Geography:Dorkovo is situated in the western Rhodope Mountains on the two banks of the river Matnitsa in the north-eastern parts of the Chepino Valley...

 village in the north-eastern part of the Chepinska valley.

The town was built on a steep heights at 1,136 meter above the sea level. Its outer walls closed an area of 25 decares and was dominated by a citadel located at the top of the cliff. The foundations of three churches have been excavated as well as four large water storage tanks up to 10 m deep.

History

In the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 Tsepina was one of the most important Bulgarian fortresses in the Rhodope region. The Bulgarians

Bulgarians

The Bulgarians are a South Slavic nation and ethnic group native to Bulgaria and neighbouring regions. Emigration has resulted in immigrant communities in a number of other countries.-History and ethnogenesis:...

 took the castle in the 9th century but with the end of the First Bulgarian Empire

First Bulgarian Empire

The First Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state founded in the north-eastern Balkans in c. 680 by the Bulgars, uniting with seven South Slavic tribes...

 in the beginning of the 11th century the Byzantines

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

 conquered it. Tsepina was liberated by Emperor Kaloyan

Kaloyan of Bulgaria

Kaloyan the Romanslayer , Ivan II , ruled as emperor of Bulgaria 1197-1207. He is the third and youngest brother of Peter IV and Ivan Asen I who managed to restore the Bulgarian Empire...

 (1197-1207). In 12th-14th century it grew as an important city and one of the strongest strongholds of the Second Bulgarian Empire

Second Bulgarian Empire

The Second Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state which existed between 1185 and 1396 . A successor of the First Bulgarian Empire, it reached the peak of its power under Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II before gradually being conquered by the Ottomans in the late 14th-early 15th century...

. It was a seat of despot Aleksey Slav

Despot Alexius Slav

Alexius Slav was a Bulgarian noble of the 12th and 13th century and a descendant of the Asen dynasty, a nephew of the first three Asen brothers...

. Between 1246 and 1254 it was under Byzantine control but Emperor Michael Asen

Michael Asen I of Bulgaria

Michael II Asen of Bulgaria , ruled as emperor of Bulgaria from 1246 to 1256. He was the son of Ivan Asen II and his third wife Irene Komnene of Epirus , daughter of Theodore I Ducas of the Despotate of Epirus...

(1246-1256) managed to retake the fortress. Around 1373 Tsepina was seized by the Turks under the command of Daud pasha after a bloody 9 month siege but only after the Ottomans cut off the water-conduit. Soon after that it was abandoned by its inhabitants.