History Debre Berhan

1 history

1.1 origins
1.2 16th-18th century
1.3 19th century
1.4 20th century

history
origins

debre berhan founded emperor zara yaqob, in response miraculous light seen in sky @ time. believing sign god showing approval death stoning of group of heretics 38 days before, emperor ordered church built on site, , later constructed extensive palace nearby, , second church, dedicated saint cyriacus. zara yaqob spent 12 of last 14 years of life in debre berhan.

historian richard pankhurst offers date of 1456 date of founding of church, providing plausible argument light in sky halley s comet, have been in shewa year, although traditional dates (10th day of month of maggabit, i.e. 6 or 7 march) not coincide days comet visible (13 through 17 june).

while son baeda maryam did spend first part of reign in debre berhan, baeda maryam returned established itinerant practice of living in permanent encampment on move through realm. departure of court led decline in population , importance of town. pankhurst explains needs of imperial court , army—who numbered in thousands—for firewood , food burdensome that, not remain in 1 locality more 4 months, nor return same place in less 10 years due resultant shortage of food , prevented growth of capital city in period.

16th-18th century

while little more large village, debre berhan mentioned few times in 16th century, first time mustering center emperor lebna dengel against invading armies of ahmad gragn. after had defeated lebna dengel @ battle of amba sel, ahmad mustered troops twice in debre berhan before leading them on campaigns deeper ethiopian territory. @ second mustering in 1535, proclaimed before followers, god, abyssinia conquered. tigray, begemder , gojjam left... shall march against them, or shall stay on in region year until have settled down? led them ethiopian highlands.

19th century

the village regained importance in reign of asfa wossen (1775-1808), meridazmach of shewa, built palace there, , divided time amongst town, ankober , angolalla. succeeding meridazmaches prized debre berhan hunting lodge surrounding plains, , used riding place. son sahle selassie rebuilt debre berhan after had been ravaged abichu oromo @ beginning of reign, , built church dedicated selassie ( trinity ) in capital.

when negus menelik submitted emperor yohannes iv in treaty of wadara of 1878, stipulated capital of shewa moved liche debre berhan.

the debre berhan market in 1880s considered important mules , horses. selassie church rebuilt emperor menilek in 1906 , contains many mural paintings. david buxton believes inevitable debre berhan regain importance, although cold , inhospitable place, writes town, has obvious advantage commanding must have been important focus of routes. in modern times inevitable asmara road should brought through easy passage, avoiding impassable gorges on other.

20th century

debre berhan received electricity in 1955 when 90 kw hydro-electric power station put service; 1965, installed electrical capacity in town 125 kva , annual production 103,000 kwh. on 26 april 1957, emperor haile selassie opened community teacher training school in town. 1958 1 of 27 places in ethiopia ranked first class township.

on 2 july 1994 broadcast 9 people killed , eleven captured in exchange of fire security forces in asagirt woreda. people alleged have broken debre berhan prison before that, setting number of prisoners free. according police, andale melaklu, debre berhan representative of all-amhara people s organization 1 of bandits killed in fire exchange.