The fortress was built in the late 13th century by king Stephen Uroš II Milutin of Serbia to protect gold, silver, iron and lead mines which were abundant throughout the area.

A significant number of Saxon miners, Albanian Catholics[1] and a large Ragusan merchant colony lived within the town, which was ruled by a vojvoda, but also a governor (kefalija), because it was the seat of an administrative unit of the Despotate.

Some of them are: Nowobordo, Nowebordo, Novus Mons, Novomonte, Monte Novo, Nyeberghe,[citation needed] Novaberde, Νοβόπριδον.

The Upper Town is the citadel of Novo Brdo and has a nearly regular hexagonal shape that is flattened on the east, so it almost takes on the look of a pentagon with the flat side facing outward toward the direction that is most approachable.

Opposite the donjon in the western vertex is a three-sided tower, its curved side adorned with a cross in dark red brick facing the Lower Town and the west.

In the local registers, names of various priests that served the community have survived, such as the Albanian Ginus filius Georgii de Nouaberda and the Ragusan Pasko Bobaljević eanonieus Ragusii et plebanus Novi Montis.

Due to large amounts of high-quality silver, trade ties of Novo Brdo extended far beyond the Balkan peninsula, especially to the west across the Adriatic Sea to Italy and beyond.

Sass had its own civil court, notaries, urburare (accountants that took care of mining tithe), and church.

The Novo Brdo miners were so famous in Europe for their advanced skills that in the 14th and 15th centuries they were invited to move to and work in Italy and Spain.

Ragusan documents attest to the presence of a significant number of Albanians living in Novo Brdo throughout the 14th and early 15th centuries, including members of the Catholic Albanian clergy with names such as Gjergjash and Gjinko, Gjini, son of Gjergji, the presbyter (1382); the reverend Gjergj Gega, Nikollë Tanushi, Gjergj Andrea Pellini and Nikolla Progonovic.

In the book of debtors belonging to Ragusan merchant Mihail Lukarevic, who resided in Novobërda during the 1430s, 150 Albanian household heads were mentioned as living in Novo Brdo with their families.

Many Albanian Catholic priests were registered as residing in Novo Brdo, as well as in towns like Janjevo, Trepça, Prizren and others.

Merchants of Dubrovnik sought to purchase this ore at the price of ordinary silver, then refine the gold themselves, and gain enormous profits.

In a letter from that year, King Stefan of Dečani informed the government of the Republic of Ragusa that the lease for the use of the Novo Brdo mine had been paid in full by Ragusan merchants.

Silver coins (grossi di Novaberda) carrying the insignia "Nouomonte moneta argentea" were made in Novo Brdo beginning in 1349 by Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović (r.

[15] The significance of Novo Brdo is further documented by the number of late medieval luxury goods findings, which speak about its prosperity and high status.

Under Đurađ's vassal obligations towards the Ottoman sultan, a detachment of cavalry and a company of tunnel diggers from Novo Brdo were sent to Mehmet II (1451–1481) to aid in his attack on Constantinople, which ended on 29 May 1453 with the city's fall.

[26] The siege and its aftermath were described in Memoirs of a Janissary, written in 1490—1501 by Novo Brdo resident Konstantin Mihailović, who was one of the boys taken.

Exploitation of the surrounding mines continued under the Ottomans, though operations were significantly diminished due to the lack of a professional work force and deteriorating conditions that had caused a steep decline of the town since 1455.

In 1685, there were only 10 houses left in the fortress, which was so ruined by then that the 40 janissaries of the garrison were stationed in suburbs, which contained only 150 Christian and Muslim homes.

[17] During the Great Turkish War, with the help of local Serbian rebels, general Enea Silvio Piccolomini occupied Novo Brdo in 1686, only a year after it was abandoned.

[citation needed] Amateur excavations, treasure hunting, plundering, and illegal diggings, almost constant since 1999, continue to deteriorate the site.