Locals say Seyfa Ared IV (Amharic: ሰይፈ አርድ ፬ኛ) (1294–1295) discovered Debre Tabor in the 13th century.

[4] In either case, Debre Tabor was the seat of the Regents of the Emperor in the 18th and 19th centuries, from which periods several churches and the ruins of two palaces survive.

[6] The Battle of Debre Tabor was fought nearby on February 6, 1842; although Dejazmach Wube Haile Maryam and his allies defeated the armies of Ras Ali II and sacked Debre Tabor once again, they were surprised while celebrating their victory by Birru Aligas, an ally of Ras Ali, who captured Wube and his son and extracted concessions from them in return for their release.

Here the Emperor met with General Gordon in October 1878, who was representing the Egyptian government, about Ethiopian demands for access to the Red Sea.

Despite these improvements, as early as August 1937, there were almost simultaneous but apparently uncoordinated attacks by arbegnoch on garrisons near Debre Tabor and near Bahir Dar.

[10] Near the beginning of Derg rule, Debre Tabor was seized by a group of local landlords and their followers in opposition to the government September 1975, killing the provincial governor and expelling both a Chinese road-building team and missionaries of the Seventh Day Adventist Church who ran a local hospital.

[10] In late December 1989, Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) forces captured Debre Tabor, claiming that they killed or wounded more than 8,000 government troops.

[11] In early August 2021, Debre Tabor was the site of fierce clashes between Fano militiamen and the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF).

Based on the 2007 national census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), this town had a total population of 55,596, of whom 27,644 were male and 27,952 female.