From the 13th cen­tu­ry to the advent of the rail­way in the ear­ly 20th cen­tu­ry, Safran­bolu was an impor­tant car­a­van sta­tion on the main East-West trade route. The Old Mosque, Old Bath and Suley­man Pasha Medrese were built in 1322. Dur­ing its apogee in the 17th cen­tu­ry, Safranbolu‘s archi­tec­ture influ­enced urban devel­op­ment through­out much of the Ottoman Empire.