Bulgaria's Tsar Samuel returns 'home' after 1,000 years
Greece and Bulgaria reached an agreement on their return this week, with Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev hailing the accord as "historic".
Members of the public hold a flag with the image of Tsar Samuel, one of the last major rulers of the First Bulgarian Empire, during a ceremony for the arrival of his remains upon its return to Bulgaria more than 1,000 years after his death, in Sofia on October 3, 2026. (AFP)
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SOFIA — More than 1,000 years after his death, the remains of what may be Tsar Samuel, one of the last major rulers of the First Bulgarian Empire, returned "home" on Saturday.
Greece and Bulgaria reached an agreement on their return this week, with Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev hailing the accord as "historic".
After a handover ceremony in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, the remains arrived in Sofia and were carried in a flag-draped coffin through the Bulgarian capital by a guard of honour.
Crowds of onlookers cheered, and fighter jets performed a flypast as the remains were taken to be laid in state in the Church of Saint Sofia, a 6th-century basilica that gave its name to the city.
In a speech to the crowds, Radev expressed his "deepest gratitude to (Greek Prime Minister) Kyriakos Mitsotakis for the wisdom and courage that led to this historic agreement" to return the remains.
The deal "further strengthens the strategic partnership, friendship and trust between our two countries", he added.
A 21-gun salute rang out across the square where the ceremony took place as he finished speaking.
In exchange for the remains, Greece is to receive 48 objects pillaged by Bulgarian troops from churches and monasteries in northern Greece during World War I.
'Where he belongs'
Tsanka Zlatkova, 65, a retired art historian, added: "I am here because I am Bulgarian, and a Bulgarian is returning to his homeland."
Samuel, who reigned from 997 to 1014, led several campaigns against the Byzantine Empire with his brothers, one of whom he later executed.
He gradually extended his authority over a swathe of the Balkans, making the Lake Prespa and Lake Ohrid region, now mostly in North Macedonia, his powerbase.
But the Byzantines regained the upper hand after 1001, soundly defeating Samuel's army in 1014.
Samuel is said to have died of shock when he saw thousands of his defeated soldiers returning home blinded on the orders of Byzantine emperor Basil II, known as the "Bulgar Slayer".
Samuel's state fell under Byzantine rule four years later.
While Radev said future generations would now be able to pay homage to their ancestors, Mitsotakis hailed the remains as having "incalculable cultural and spiritual but also emotional value".
Competing claims
His legacy has become a bone of contention between the two neighbours, with Macedonians claiming him as "their" ruler.
Some historians have likened the dispute to the French and German tug-of-war over Charlemagne.
In 2022, a bilateral commission recommended presenting Samuel as the head of a state that "most contemporary historiographers consider to be the Bulgarian Empire", based in what is currently North Macedonia.
The supposed remains of Samuel were discovered by Greek archaeologist Nikolaos Moutsopoulos in the 1960s.
Moutsopoulos led excavations on the Greek island of Saint Achilleios on Little Prespa Lake near the border between Greece and Albania and not far from the frontier with North Macedonia.
They found the skeleton of a man measuring about 1.6 metres (5 feet 3 inches), along with remnants of a rich silk fabric edged with gold and decorated with bird motifs.
The attribution to Samuel is based on clues including the location of the tomb, the sumptuousness of the garment, the age of the deceased and an old fracture.
Bulgaria officially opened talks on the return of the remains in 2007, and they became a major issue in relations with Greece.
The deal this week also sparked a row in Bulgaria over who should claim the credit, with history playing a major role in this month's presidential election.
Incumbent Iliana Iotova, backed by Radev and promoting ties both with Moscow and the EU and NATO, is playing the patriotic card, having launched her campaign in Veliki Preslav, former capital of the First Bulgarian Empire.