Kran (Bulgarian: Крън, pronounced [ˈkrɤn]; also transliterated as Krun or Krǎn) is a town in central Bulgaria.

It is located just south of the Balkan Mountains and is administratively part of Kazanlak Municipality, Stara Zagora Province.

[5] In 1995, a team of archaeologists headed by Georgi Kitov unearthed a Thracian tomb under Sarafova Mogila, a mound near the town.

In 1190, the surviving Byzantine troops of a failed anti-Bulgarian campaign retreated to Kran en route to Beroia (today Stara Zagora).

Aldimir may have already been in charge of the fortress in the 1280s and early 1290s, and he was certainly the lord of Kran from 1298 to 1305, under the regent queen Smiltsena and his own nephew Theodore Svetoslav (r. 1300–1322).

[9][10][11] At the height of Aldimir's reign as despot of Kran, the fortress was the capital of a domain which extended from Yambol and Karnobat in the east to Kazanlak or Karlovo in the west.

The castle's natural position atop a cliff facilitated its defence, though it was also supported by thick walls and several defensive towers.