The fortress remained in Byzantine hands thereafter, forming, along with nearby Stenimachos, its own province, until it was ceded in 1343 or 1344 to the Bulgarians during the Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347, when the regency council tried to obtain Bulgarian support against the usurper John VI Kantakouzenos. Around 1373 it was seized by the Turks under the command of Daud Pasha, after a bloody nine-month siege but only after the Ottomans cut off the water-conduit. Soon after that it was abandoned by its inhabitants and fell into ruin, although one of the churches continued to be used until the 17th century, possibly as part of a monastery (whence the local names "Metoha", 'metochion', or "Manastirat", 'monastery', for the settlement).