An Ethiopian monk, Brother Antonio, told the Venetian scholar Alessandro Zorzi in the 1520's that it was the "chief city" and residence of the Bahr Negash, Francisco Álvares, who visited the town at the same time describes that it was the site of the ruler's "principal palaces".

Sarsa Dengel then seized the vast riches stored by the Turks in Debarwa and ordered the destruction of the mosque and the fort that was erected during the Ottoman occupation.

[5] In 1587, the Turks left the port of Hirgigo and advanced inland to take Debarwa again but was again defeated by Sarsa Dengel who killed the Turkish commander Kadawred Pasha in battle.

Though still a flourishing political and commercial center in Poncet's day, Debarwa was beginning to be overshadowed by the more southernly town of Adwa, which soon became the main metropolis of northern Ethiopia.

A French visitor described Debarwa as "decimated", and all that was left of the once prosperous town were "a few piles of stones, an almost ruined church, and a few wretched hovels".