. The city was founded by the
Roman emperor Trajan (r. 98–117) near the ancient town of
Doriscus, and received his name. In the
Roman period, the city was famous for its baths. In the 4th century, it became the capital and
metropolitan see of the Thracian
Roman province of
Rhodope. Under
Justinian I (r. 527–565) the city walls were repaired. The city remained the metropolis of the ecclesiastical province of Rhodope until its decline in the 14th century, when it ceased being a provincial capital with the rise of the
theme system. It was restructured under the
Theme of Macedonia, although a single
strategos of Traianoupolis is attested in an 11th-century seal. In autumn 1077, the troops of the rebel general
Nikephoros Bryennios the Elder proclaimed him emperor at Trajanople. In the
Partitio Romaniae of 1204, it is listed as the
pertinentia de Macri et Traianopoli. The
Crusader Geoffrey of Villehardouin is known to have been assigned fiefs in the area. In 1205 or 1207, the town was destroyed by Tsar
Kaloyan of Bulgaria, but in 1210 it is attested as a Latin (Roman Catholic) archbishopric. Following its recovery by the
Empire of Nicaea, the Greek Orthodox see was restored; in 1260, John Kondoumnes was named as its bishop. The area was ravaged by Bulgarian raids in 1322 and by Turkish raids in 1329/30. By the time
John Kantakouzenos and his ally,
Umur Bey, erected their camp on the site in the winter of 1343/44, the city had lain destroyed and abandoned for several years. In 1347, the local metropolitan was therefore allowed to reside in
Mosynopolis instead. The area fell to the
Ottoman Turks by 1365, and in 1371 the see was supplanted by that of
Serres in the ecclesiastical hierarchy. The sole use of the site after the city's abandonment was as a way-station, and in ca. 1375/85, the Ottoman
Gazi Evrenos built an inn (
Hana) and a
Turkish bath, which still survives today; traces of the medieval buildings and the circuit wall also have survived. The area came under
Bulgarian rule after the
Balkan Wars of 1912–13 until it was ceded to
Greece in the
Treaty of Neuilly in 1919. == Ecclesiastical history ==