Historic Return: Tsar Samuil’s Remains Will Be Returned to Bulgaria after More than 1,000 Years

A historic day for Bulgaria. Today, September 29, a historic return was announced. From Saturday, 3 October, the final resting place of Tsar Samuil will once again be on Bulgarian soil. More than 1,000 years later, the remains of the ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire are returning to Bulgaria from Greece. Bulgaria has been waiting for this day for more than six decades.

Six decades of efforts – and one of Bulgaria’s great rulers is finally returning home. In the heart of Sofia, in just a few days, a journey lasting more than a millennium will come to an end. On Saturday, the remains of Tsar Samuil will return to Bulgaria.

Photos: Desislava Kulelieva, BNT

Following the official ceremony to receive them, they will be laid to rest with full state honours at the Church of St Sofia. The location is not accidental – it was at St Sofia that Tsar Samuil was baptised as a child.

After almost six decades of diplomatic negotiations, a historic moment has been reached in which Greece will hand over the remains of Tsar Samuil to Bulgaria. Prime Minister Rumen Radev announced this before the start of today’s government meeting. He will travel with a delegation to Thessaloniki on Saturday, where his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis will personally hand over Tsar Samuil’s remains. They will then be flown to Sofia and taken to Alexander I Battenberg Square. From there, a procession will make its way to St Sofia Church, where they will be placed beside the monument to the Bulgarian ruler and, on the other side, the monument to his blinded soldiers.

Rumen Radev, Prime Minister: “Dear fellow citizens, following intensive negotiations, Bulgaria and Greece have reached a historic agreement on the return of the remains of the Bulgarian Tsar Samuil to his homeland. The efforts of the Bulgarian state to bring back Tsar Samuil’s remains date back to 1965, when the world-renowned Greek archaeologist Prof Nikolaos Moutsopoulos discovered them during excavations at the basilica built by Tsar Samuil on the island of St Achilleios in the Small Prespa Lake, where our tsar had his summer residence. For six decades now, the Bulgarian state has never ceased its efforts to bring back the remains of one of its greatest rulers.”

“On Saturday morning, 3 October, I will be at the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki, where, at a ceremony hosted by the Prime Minister of Greece, the remains of Tsar Samuil will be officially handed over to the Bulgarian state. We will also be handed the remains from two other sarcophagi discovered in the same church, belonging to Tsar Gavril Radomir and other members of the royal family. Following the transportation of Tsar Samuil’s remains to Sofia aboard a Spartan aircraft, they will be placed in a special sarcophagus at St Sofia Church, where the future Tsar of Bulgaria was introduced to Christianity as a child. On Saturday, 3 October, at 12.30pm, I invite all fellow citizens to Battenberg Square, in front of the Royal Palace in Sofia, so that we can welcome the remains together and pay our respects to the memory of the great Bulgarian ruler, Tsar Samuil. We will then accompany him in procession to St Sofia Church on his final journey,” Radev added.

Photos: BTA

For those unable to attend in person, Bulgarian National Television is preparing a special programme that will follow all the events, including those taking place in Greece.