Bulgaria Exchanged the Remains of Its Medieval King with Greece
The remains, which are linked to the famous Bulgarian Tsar Samuel, were found during archaeological excavations in the Basilica of Saint Achill on Prespa Island. In 1965, Professor Nikolaos Moutsopoulos discovered four sarcophagi and anthropological materials there. In recent years, the findings have been stored in the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki. Now they are being transferred to Bulgaria as part of a cultural exchange agreement between the two countries, writes Euronews.
In return, Greece will receive 48 relics from the monasteries of Panagia Eikosiphinissa and John the Forerunner in Serres, as well as from the Metropolis of Serres and Nigrita. Before their final return to the places from which these relics were taken, they will be exhibited at the Museum of Byzantine Culture until November 5, 2026.
The ceremony of mutual transfer took place in Thessaloniki in the presence of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev. During the ceremony, corresponding protocols for the transfer and reception of the relics were signed.
The procedure was the result of a memorandum of understanding, prepared after years of negotiations and regular contacts between the two countries. The document was signed by the Ministers of Culture of Greece and Bulgaria, Lina Mendoni and Yeftim Miloshev.
Tsar Samuel (reigned 997–1014, effectively from 976) was the ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire, known for his prolonged and dramatic confrontation with the Byzantine Empire. For decades, he successfully resisted the expansion of Byzantium under Emperor Basil II and moved the capital of the state to the west, to Ohrid (now in the territory of North Macedonia).
In 1014, in the Battle of Kleidion (Bela Vitsa), Samuel's army was defeated. Basil II ordered about 15,000 captured Bulgarians to be blinded, leaving only one-eyed leaders for every hundred to guide the blind back to their homeland.
Upon seeing his blinded army, Samuel, according to some sources, could not bear it and died of a heart attack. Four years after his death, in 1018, the First Bulgarian Empire finally fell under the blows of Byzantium.
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