Sofia (Bulgaria) (AFP) – More than a thousand years after his death, the remains attributed to Tsar Samuil, one of the last Bulgarian rulers before Byzantine domination, return to the country on Saturday.

Published on: 03/10/2026 - 01:08 Modified on: 03/10/2026 - 11:11

At the Byzantine Museum in Thessaloniki, Greece, Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev welcomed, during a ceremony with his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis, a "historic agreement" with Greece allowing their return in exchange for 48 objects from two monasteries and the metropolis of Serres and Nigrita.

These remains and objects “belong to our two peoples”, he also underlined.

They “constitute our memory, our history and our relationship, and our compatriots as well as future generations deserve and must have the opportunity to pay homage to their ancestors,” he added.

At his side, the head of the Greek government judged that these objects returned to Greece were “of inestimable cultural, spiritual, but also emotional value”.

Samouil, or Samuel, who reigned from 997 to 1014, led with his brothers several campaigns against Byzantium and gradually extended his authority over much of the Balkans, with Prespa and Ohrid among his main centers of power.

From 1001, Byzantium regained the advantage, until the defeat of Kliuch in 1014, after which thousands of prisoners were made blind.

Samuil died shortly afterwards and the Bulgarian state came under Byzantine rule in 1018.

His legacy has long pitted Sofia and Skopje against each other, with some historians comparing this feud to French and German stories surrounding Charlemagne.

“Samouil occupies an important place in the historical narrative both in Bulgaria and in North Macedonia. This initiative aims to highlight the Bulgarian character of the Slavic population of Macedonia,” said Dimitar Betchev, researcher at the Carnegie Europe think tank, to AFP.

Samouil's supposed remains were discovered in the 1960s by Greek archaeologist Nikolaos Moutsopoulos, who was leading excavations at the Basilica of Saint Achilles, on an island in small Lake Prespa.

In a sarcophagus lay the skeleton of a man measuring approximately 1.60 m, as well as the remains of a rich fabric woven from silk threads surrounded by gold threads. It was decorated with bird motifs.

The attribution to Samouil is based on clues such as the location of the grave, the richness of the clothing, the age of the deceased and an old fracture.

Bulgaria officially began discussions on the return of the remains in 2007, an issue taken up by several governments and at times becoming an important topic in bilateral relations with Greece.

Some historians in Sofia, however, question the value of the exchange, the remains attributed to Samouil having never been formally identified, unlike the objects claimed in return by Greece, the origin of which is established.

These objects “had been transferred to Sofia in 1917, during the First World War, and were exhibited or preserved at the National History Museum of Bulgaria,” the Greek Ministry of Culture indicated earlier this week.

During the period 1916-1918, Bulgarian troops plundered monasteries located on Greek territory, taking away hundreds of Byzantine manuscripts and liturgical objects, according to Greek authorities.

The transfer also comes less than a month before the Bulgarian presidential election, in a context where national history occupies an important place in the electoral campaign.

President Iliyana Iotova, candidate for her succession and supported by Rumen Radev, a pragmatist who defends both Bulgaria's place in the EU and NATO while advocating dialogue with Moscow, launched her campaign on September 27 in front of the Golden Church of Veliki Preslav, former capital of the First Bulgarian Empire.

On the domestic level, "Radev seeks to attract the patriotic electorate. The message is that, unlike the radicals, he obtains results", analyzes Mr. Betchev.

Samouil's remains are to be placed in a white marble sarcophagus quarried in the Prilep region, in present-day North Macedonia, according to public television BNT. They will be installed in the Hagia Sophia church, a paleo-Christian basilica from the 6th century which gave its name to the Bulgarian capital.

© 2026 AFP

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