Kran is located in the so-called
Valley of the Thracian Kings, a region of Bulgaria known for the abundance of Thracian sites and artifacts. In 1995, a team of archaeologists headed by
Georgi Kitov unearthed a Thracian tomb under Sarafova Mogila, a mound near the town. The tomb is known as Kran II and was built in the 4th century BC. The tomb is notable for the earliest known example of painted
friezes in Thracian architecture. It is also among the earliest to make use of bricks and mortar as construction materials. The conservation of the Kran II tomb was completed in 2009 and the site was opened to the public. A Thracian sanctuary was discovered by archaeologists near the town in 2009. The sanctuary dates to 2200–1900 BC and also includes nine burials of infants. Kran is first mentioned under its modern name during the
High Middle Ages. In 1190, the surviving
Byzantine troops of a failed
anti-Bulgarian campaign retreated to Kran en route to Beroia (today
Stara Zagora).
Despotate of Kran In the late 13th century, the fortress of Kran emerged as the capital of the Kran Despotate, an
appanage of the Second Bulgarian Empire under the rule of
despot Aldimir, younger brother of the
Bulgarian Emperor George Terter I (r. 1280–1292). Aldimir may have already been in charge of the fortress in the 1280s and early 1290s, and he was certainly the lord of Kran from 1298 to 1305, under the regent queen
Smiltsena and his own nephew
Theodore Svetoslav (r. 1300–1322). In that year, the despotate was annexed by Theodore Svetoslav and direct rule from
Tarnovo was restored. At the height of Aldimir's reign as
despot of Kran, the fortress was the capital of a domain which extended from
Yambol and
Karnobat in the east to Kazanlak or
Karlovo in the west. ==References==