Debrecen and its surroundings were inhabited already in ancient times. The name of the city first appears in a 1235 deed.
The area of Debrecen was already inhabited in ancient times. Until the conquest, it was inhabited by many peoples such as vandals, Goths, Sarmatians, Gepids, Avars and Bulgarians. The border of today’s Debrecen was often a frontier of great empires and peoples. The Devils, found in the Great Woods in the north of the city and in the wildernesses of the east, were also part of a large border protection system. The small and reconstructed part of the deep and wide ditch forming the defensive line, which was blocked by sharp logs dug into its sides and deep, is still visible to the east of the town, on the south side of the road towards Vámospércs
The history of the settlement of Debrecen, formed by the merging of several villages at the crossroads of the four highlands, is hardly known in the centuries after the conquest. What is certain is that in the decades following the Tartar invasion, it began to emerge from the surrounding villages. The name of the city was first mentioned in a church document dating back to 1235.