In the spring of thirteen seventy three after a long siege, the army of Timurtacs Bey conquered the stronghold of Dubilin, today’s Yambol. Great was the anger of Ottomans when they entered the city. They destroyed the fortress, marched off many Bulgarians and other people to the slave markets in Asia Minor. Those who survived settled down in the south quarters, beyond Tundzha in the neighborhood of Kargon...

Soon the town became a center of the province. Its good location turned it into a model city for the Empire, as early as in the middle of the fifteenth century.  It was the sixth town in the Bulgarian lands by the number of its population. In fourteen thirty five huge cattle-sheds, grain storehouses, inns and barracks were constructed as well as the big stone bridge over Tundzha. The central part of the town was created at the beginning of the sixteenth century, between Eski Mosque, the Bezisten and the hammam of the bridge. Rich was the town and trade was flourishing here and Edirne was just two days away. And Constantinople was seven days away.
In the seventeenth century there were two baths in this town and also five mosques and many trees. The famous rugs of Yambol were made here. Those rugs were also called Yambolers. The traditional sheep breeding and the skilful weaving of the local people won the town a leading position in rug production.

The citizens of Yambol got a higher self-confidence and that was when they built the churches Saint George and Holy Trinity. The town was divided into seventeen neighborhoods and had about three thousand and five hundred houses. In the eighteenth century the thirst for learning had also become more appalling. More enlightened citizens replaced the church schools with modern secular education. The first school in Yambol was opened in eighteen five. It was located in the convent cells of Saint George church.  The first teachers were the clerics of the church. The largest contribution to the promotion of the mother tongue in Yambol had teacher Dobri Chintulov. He was teaching in Bulgarian. In eighteen fifty seven Anka Alexandrova opened the first girls’ school. That was more or less the time when the fight against the Patriarchate of Constantinople started and Yambolers made a complete break with that Patriarchate on eighteenth of October eighteen sixty six when in Saint George church once more they did not let the Bishop in and burned the  Greek missals.
Very profound changes happened in the lands of Yambol in the early nineteenth century. Russia lost the war with Turkey and along with the retreating Russian soldiers thousands of Bulgarians started migrating to Wallachia and South Bessarabia. The number of migrants from Yambol exceeded seven thousand people so the town became desolated.

Glorious and rich has been the history of Yambol. Worthy people were born here, such as Radi Kolesov, Alexander Zograph and Zlati Palamidov. At the beginning of seventies of the nineteenth century when the revolutionary movement was rising, the residents of Yambol also took part in it.  In the winter of eighteen seventy two, Apostle Levski had a meeting with the Yamboler Georgi Drazhev and they both decided to found a secret committee. The committee was founded two months after the Apostle had been hanged – on twenty third of April, eighteen seventy three in the home of Drazho Hadji Georgiev. Georgi Drazhev was elected for its leader.

When the uprising broke in Sliven, the group of rebels coming from Yambol managed to join the band of Stoil Chieftain in the Sliven Mountain. Then we heard that they had several battles with the regular Turkish army and were defeated. Drazhev was caught and he was later on hanged near the bridge of Kargona.
The following eighteen seventy seventh saw the beginning of the Liberation War. Thirty seven men from Yambol took part in the Bulgarian Volunteers’ army. The Fourth Volunteers’ battalion received a flag, made by Ivan Paraskevof from Braila. After the liberation the Braila flag became the prototype of the Bulgarian national tricolor.  On seventeenth of January, by the old calendar, in the year eighteen seventy eight the Russians of the Twenty third Regiment of Donskoy- Cossack entered Yambo.