Debre Markos () is a city, separate woreda, and administrative seat of the East Gojjam Zone in Amhara Region, Ethiopia. Etymology Originally named Manqwarar (lit: Cold Place), the town was founded in 1853 by dejazmach Tedla Gwalu, the then ruler of Gojjam. In the 1880s, his successor Negus Tekle Haymanot built the Church of Markos, dedicated to Saint Markos, and named the town after it.. History 19th century In 1869 Debre Markos (then Manqwarar) became the seat of the provincial ruler, Ras Adal, who later assumed the name Tekle Haymanot and title Negus of Gojjam. during his reign and as a result, Pankhurst notes, the population of Debre Markos "fluctuated greatly with the presence of absence of the army" of the Negus. He states that when the Nigus resided in the town, it had between 20,000 and 40,000 inhabitants; in his absence, between 5,000 and 6,000. The explorer Pellegrino Matteucci (b. 1850) arrived at what was at that time named Monkorer on 3 June 1879, explored the neighboring area, then departed 20 June for Adwa and Massawa. 20th century In March 1900 an expedition led by Percy Powell-Cotton visited Debre Markos and noted that ‘‘the town looked more like a town than Menelik's capital. The palace of Nigus Tekle Haimanot was remodeled in 1926 by his son Ras Hailu Tekle Haymanot, in the style of European buildings after his tour of Europe in the party of Ras Tefari. In 1935, the town had postal, telegraph, and telephone service. The Italians arrived in Debre Markos 20 May 1936. Through an interpreter, Achille Starace, who had arrived by plane, told the surprised local inhabitants that he had come to free them from their oppressors to their thorough bemusement. Debre Markos was later isolated and practically besieged by a revolt in 1938. General Ugo Cavallero, with sixty thousand men and supported by airplanes and tanks, had crushed the revolt by the end of May. A major Italian fortification was located in the city during the existence of Italian East Africa, and captured by the British Gideon Force and Ethiopian Arbegnoch (or Resistance Fighters) 3 April 1941 during the East African Campaign. In 1957, Nigus Tekle Haimanot School in Debre Markos was one of 9 provincial secondary schools in Ethiopia. The next year, the town was one of 27 places in Ethiopia ranked as a First Class Township. In 1960 a branch of the