Czar Samuel’s remains have returned to Bulgaria more than 1,000 years after his death, arriving in Sofia aboard a military aircraft escorted by air force fighter jets.
The medieval ruler, a symbol of Bulgarian national identity, fought the Byzantine Empire to expand his kingdom before being defeated and dying soon afterwards in 1014. The remains, believed to be his, were discovered in a Greek border area during the 1960s.
Thousands gathered in a public square in the Bulgarian capital for the homecoming ceremony, where politicians from across the political spectrum paid tribute as the national anthem played and a 21-gun salute was fired.
Prime Minister Rumen Radev said the occasion should encourage Europeans to view history through a shared cultural identity rather than national division.
“Today, we Europeans are learning to read history with a desire to belong not only to our homeland, but also to the culture that unites us across the entire European continent,” he said.
Mr Radev added: “That is why Europe must not reopen old wounds but must work for peace as the supreme good,” in a reference to the longstanding rivalry between Greece and Bulgaria.
Fighter jets flew over the crowds before a procession carried the remains to the Church of Saint Sofia, a sixth-century basilica that gives the capital its name. Church officials say Samuel was baptised there.
Martin Nestorov, a 42-year-old software engineer, said he had attended “to welcome Czar Samuel back to Bulgaria, where he belongs”. Tsanka Zlatkova, a 65-year-old retired art historian, said: “I am here because I am Bulgarian, and a Bulgarian is returning to his homeland.”
Agreement between Greece and Bulgaria
The repatriation followed years of difficult negotiations and forms part of a wider agreement between the Greek and Bulgarian culture ministers.
Under the arrangement, Greece is due to receive 48 objects taken by Bulgarian troops from Greek churches and monasteries during the First World War.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he hoped the handover would support Greece’s campaign to recover the Parthenon Marbles, the 2,500-year-old sculptures taken from the Acropolis in Athens and later displayed in the British Museum.
“The global community is essentially re-evaluating its longstanding stance on protecting cultural heritage,” Mr Mitsotakis said, adding that historical heirlooms “cannot be treated as the spoils of war”.
Samuel is also claimed by North Macedonia, where a large statue of the ruler stands in the capital, Skopje. Macedonians regard him as their ruler, while a bilateral commission recommended in 2022 that he be presented as the head of a state that “most contemporary historiographers consider to be the Bulgarian Empire”, based in what is now North Macedonia.
