Bulgaria reburied the remains of Tsar Samuel in Sofia with a state ceremony and military honors, bringing to an end a journey that began with their discovery in Greece more than five decades ago.
Samuel, who ruled Bulgaria during one of the most difficult periods in its history, died 1,012 years and three days before his remains were returned. According to the account recalled at the ceremony, he suffered a heart attack after seeing his soldiers blinded following the Battle of Belasitsa (also known as the Battle of Kleidion). He had survived dozens of fierce battles alongside his troops, while the First Bulgarian Empire fell four years after his death.
The return followed decades of archaeological research, scholarly debate and diplomatic negotiations between Bulgaria and Greece. The handover took place at the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki, where Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis attended the signing of a protocol by the two countries’ culture ministers.
Under the agreement, Bulgaria returned 48 ecclesiastical artifacts to Greece. The objects, including an episcopal throne, had been taken by Bulgarian troops in 1917 during World War I from the metropolitan sees of Serres and Nigrita and several monasteries in Aegean Macedonia. Bulgarian scholars had preserved them while the territories, inhabited by ethnic Bulgarians, were under the rule of Tsar Ferdinand I.
Mitsotakis said the artifacts were important to Greece’s spiritual and emotional life and stressed that historical and religious relics should not be treated as spoils of war. He described the return of Samuel’s remains, which had been kept by the Greek government for decades, as the fulfillment of a historic duty. He also recalled that negotiations had begun in the 1970s, during the tenures of Konstantinos Karamanlis and Todor Zhivkov.
“Today, we are establishing a very deep bond with Bulgaria – one that goes beyond the cultural. The return of significant ecclesiastical artifacts creates new bridges of communication,” Mitsotakis said, thanking Radev for reaching the agreement.
The Greek prime minister said the exchange was an initial step toward further cooperation and the return of other relics to Bulgaria.
Radev said the Bulgarian state’s efforts to recover Samuel’s remains dated back to the 1960s, when Greek archaeologist Prof. Nikolaos Moutsopoulos discovered them at the Church of Saint Achillios. He thanked Mitsotakis for the agreement, which he described as historic for both countries, and said it fulfilled the wish of the remains’ discoverer.
“If in the past Tsar Samuel divided us, today he unites us. Our shared EU membership allows our two countries to better understand each other’s concerns,” Radev said.
He described the agreement as a new stage in relations between the two countries after a turbulent shared Balkan history marked by conflict. Radev said the two peoples had moved beyond past rivalries and built trust, friendship and good-neighborly relations. He also called the partnership between Bulgaria and Greece an axis of stability and prosperity, with cultural relations forming an important part of it.
The remains were flown from Thessaloniki to Sofia aboard a Spartan military transport aircraft. Two pairs of Bulgarian fighter jets, MiG-29s and F-16s, escorted the plane after it entered Bulgarian airspace. The aircraft landed at Vasil Levski Airport at exactly 1 p.m.
A Guard of Honor lined the route as the sarcophagus was brought from the aircraft along a red carpet. Radev, Deputy Prime Minister Ivo Hristov, Culture Minister Evtim Miloshev and Bulgarian Ambassador Valentin Poryazov disembarked from the plane. Bulgarian Army personnel then transported the remains to Knyaz Alexander I Square on a military truck accompanied by military police, specialized police vehicles and motorcycle units.
The ceremony in central Sofia included a Guard of Honor, a military band, the national anthem and 21 artillery salutes. Fighter jets flew over the square, and Vice President Iliana Yotova attended alongside all three living former presidents: Petar Stoyanov, Georgi Parvanov and Rosen Plevneliev. Government ministers and deputy ministers, GERB leader Boyko Borissov, Kiril Petkov, PP leader Asen Vasilev, Patriarch Daniil and members of the Holy Synod, Sofia Mayor Vasil Terziev, MPs, MEPs and members of the public were also present.
In his address, Radev said Samuel had spent his life defending Bulgaria’s lands and unity, often facing attacks from those closest to him. He recalled the achievements of earlier Bulgarian rulers, including Asparuh, Tervel, Boris I and Simeon the Great, before describing the fall of Veliki Preslav and the divisions that weakened the state inherited by Samuel and his three brothers.
Radev said Samuel’s struggle for the Bulgarian cause had lasted 40 years. He recalled the ruler’s victory at Trajan’s Gate and defeat at Spercheios, as well as the wounds he suffered alongside his soldiers. A badly healed injury to Samuel’s left forearm later helped archaeologists identify his remains beneath gilded armor and a royal shroud on the island of Agios Achillios.
The prime minister described Samuel’s death after the defeat at Belasitsa in 1014 as a biblical tragedy, saying the ruler died upon seeing his blinded soldiers. He said the suffering of his subjects had torn apart the tsar’s heart.
“Our tsar died at the sight of his blinded soldiers. What greater nobility is there than that – a ruler’s heart torn apart by the suffering of his subjects?” Radev said.
He also said that Europe should not reopen old wounds but work for peace, and thanked Greece for returning the remains. Radev said the agreement strengthened the strategic partnership between the two countries and the friendship and trust between their peoples.
“It is hardly a coincidence that the sixty-year effort to bring him back is bearing fruit today, at a time when disbelief, a lack of patriotism, and division are once again seeping into our society,” he said, adding that Bulgaria was welcoming not only the remains but also Samuel’s spirit, faith and determination to defend the country.
President Yotova said Samuel’s soul had found its way back to its homeland. “I am sure that he is at peace now, because he is in Bulgaria. It is as though his blinded soldiers had regained their sight to show him the way to Bulgaria and to his people,” she said.
After the official ceremony, a procession numbering in the thousands accompanied the coffin from Knyaz Alexander I Square through central Sofia to the Basilica of St. Sophia. The route passed along Tsar Osvoboditel Boulevard, Georgi S. Rakovski Street, Oborishte Street and Paris Street. Dozens of citizens stopped along the way to pay their respects to the ruler, who governed Bulgaria in the late 10th and early 11th centuries.
The ceremony was led by Bulgarian Patriarch and Metropolitan of Sofia Daniil, with hierarchs and clergy of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church concelebrating. In his address, Daniil said Samuel was returning to his people to remain in Bulgaria forever.
“With reverence and filial respect, we welcome the sarcophagus containing the mortal remains of one of the most worthy and great rulers of the Bulgarian people – Tsar Samuel,” the patriarch said.
Daniil described Samuel as a faithful son of the Church and his people, who defended the dignity of the Bulgarian crown and fought to his last breath for those entrusted to him. He said the ruler had returned to rest in the Church of Saint Sophia, in the capital of the country for which he gave his life and where he was baptized in his youth. The patriarch also thanked those who had made the discovery and transfer possible.
The coffin was placed in a specially made marble sarcophagus weighing approximately two and a half tons. The marble was quarried from lands that belonged to Samuel’s former kingdom. The sarcophagus features a Christogram, Archangel Michael, Samuel’s Fortress flanked by lions, peacocks and a palace. Its creation was initiated by the Ministry of Culture with the blessing of Patriarch Daniil, BTA reported.
A trisagion service was held inside the basilica, while a massive Bulgarian flag was unfurled outside, stretching from Rakovski Boulevard to the entrance of Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. The remains were solemnly placed in the sarcophagus for their final rest. The church was to remain open to citizens wishing to pay their respects.
The return marks the second time in two years that the remains of a Bulgarian monarch have been brought back to the country. Tsar Ferdinand I, who ruled from 1887 to 1918, was returned from Coburg in 2024 and buried at Vrana Palace. Prince Alexander I Battenberg, during whose reign the Unification took place and was defended in the victorious Serbo-Bulgarian War, is also buried in a mausoleum in central Sofia.
Moutsopoulos and his team discovered Samuel’s remains in 1969 during excavations at the Basilica of Saint Achillios on the island of the same name in Lesser Prespa Lake. Excavations had begun four years earlier. The island became a major political and spiritual center of Samuel’s state in the late 10th century. After capturing Larissa, the ruler moved the relics of Saint Achillios of Larissa there and commissioned a large basilica in the saint’s honor.
Archaeologists found sarcophagi in the southern section of the church, one containing the remains of a man. Moutsopoulos attributed them to Samuel based on archaeological, historical and anthropological evidence, including a severe injury to the left forearm that had healed improperly. The bones were taken away for analysis and subsequently kept in Thessaloniki.
Bulgaria also received the remains from two other sarcophagi found in the same church. Moutsopoulos believed they could belong to Tsar Gavril Radomir and other members of the royal family. The identification of Samuel’s remains has also been supported by scientific research, according to Greek media. Kathimerini reported on anthropological analysis at the Malcolm H. Wiener Laboratory for Archaeological Science at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens and proteomic analysis at the Bonn Center for ArchaeoSciences. It also cited the burial site, sarcophagus type, dating of the burial cloth and signs of trauma to the left arm.
Kathimerini reported that the 48 artifacts returned to Greece had been removed in 1917 and later held or displayed at Bulgaria’s National Museum of History in Sofia. They came from the Monastery of Panagia Eikosifoinissa, the Monastery of Timios Prodromos in Serres and the Metropolitan Diocese of Serres and Nigrita. The items were displayed at the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki through November 5, after which they were to be formally handed over to the monasteries and diocese from which they had been taken.
The Greek broadcaster ERT described the agreement as historic and covered the signing of the handover protocols in the presence of Radev and Mitsotakis. It focused on the return of the 48 relics to Greece and the transfer of Samuel’s remains to Bulgaria. Proto Thema published photographs of some of the returned items, while Thessaloniki-based Voria said they consisted mainly of church vestments and Gospel covers. Voria reported that Culture Minister Lina Mendoni would present the relics to the public on October 10.
Media in North Macedonia connected the transfer with disputes over shared history and what they described as political pressure on Skopje. Their coverage drew on Bulgarian and Greek reporting, with headlines focusing on the idea of shared history, the exchange of historical objects and the political implications of Samuel’s return to Bulgaria.
The North Macedonian outlet 4news.mk said Bulgarian television coverage had included calls for the transfer not to harm relations with North Macedonia, but to prompt Skopje to accept Samuel as an exclusively Bulgarian ruler. It also reported that historians representing North Macedonia on the joint historical commission had previously recognized grounds for considering Samuel a Bulgarian ruler and part of the shared history of the two countries.
Nezavisen.mk wrote that the return could make St. Sophia Church a regular stop for visiting North Macedonian delegations and criticized what it described as political demands directed at Skopje. Trn.mk characterized the agreement as a balancing of material and symbolic accounts, while noting that the archaeological evidence had been used to identify the remains as those of the medieval tsar.
Kolegium cited the finding of the Joint Multidisciplinary Expert Commission on Historical and Educational Issues that Samuel ruled a large medieval state that most contemporary historical research considers Bulgarian. It also recalled the commission’s recommendation that commemorations should express shared values, good-neighborliness and friendship.
The outlet published a Facebook comment by former VMRO-DPMNE lawmaker Ilija Dimovski, who said, “The problem concerning Tsar Samuel is here at home; we should not be angry with others.” Dimovski argued that agreements with Greece and Bulgaria had limited North Macedonia’s ability to challenge the transfer and said the issue should be addressed domestically.
Racin.mk noted that the word “exchange” featured prominently in Greek media coverage, with some outlets presenting the event as a bilateral agreement rather than a unilateral return of Samuel’s remains.
The transfer took place during Bulgaria’s presidential election campaign. Radev said the return should help strengthen national unity, while President Yotova has made themes including the homeland, history, peace and national unity central to her campaign.