The Roman and Early Byzantine castle of Yatrus is situated at the mouth of the Yan­tra River near the present-day village of Krivina. This is the best-studied Late Ro­man military camp in present-day Bulgaria.

In 270-275 under the pressure of the Bar­barian tribes advancing from the north and northeast, the Romans were forced to leave Dacia province located north of the Danube. Thus, the lower reaches of the river again turned into imperial bounda­ries. For their effective protection, large-scale construction of fortresses began. At that time, on the right bank of the Yantra River at its estuary, a military camp was built - a castle named after the ancient name of the river, Yatrus.

Yatrus occupied an area of nearly 3 ha. The place is naturally protected by steep slopes from the north and northeast. The fortress follows the outline of the hill, which also determines its irregular shape. The width of the fortress wall in the sep­arate sectors was 3-3.50 m and its pre­sumed height was 10 m. Outside of the wall there were 10 strongly protruding, massive U-shaped towers. Two of them defended the only gate of the castle.

The settlement functioned together with a road station in the 2nd–3rd century. Yatrus survived until the 7th century when it was destroyed by the Slavs, Avars and Proto- Bulgarians advancing from the north. A Proto-Bulgarian settlement existed upon its ruins in the period from the 8th to the 13th century.

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