Remains of Bulgaria’s Czar Samuel return ‘home’ after 1,000 years

By AFP and AP. Published On 3 Oct 20263 Oct 2026.

Key points

• More than 1, 000 years after his death, the remains of medieval ruler Czar Samuel have arrived in Bulgaria.
• Martin Nestorov, a 42-year-old software engineer, informed the AFP news agency he attended the ceremony "to welcome Czar Samuel back to Bulgaria, where he belongs".
• In exchange, Greece is slated to receive 48 objects that Bulgarian troops pillaged from churches and monasteries in Greece during World War I.
• His supposed remains were discovered in a Greek border area in the 1960s.
• "I am here because I am Bulgarian, and a Bulgarian is returning to his homeland, " continued Tsanka Zlatkova, 65, a retired art historian.

In practice, a symbol of Bulgarian national identity, Samuel was a warrior emperor who battled the Byzantine Empire to expand his kingdom before suffering defeat and dying shortly after in 1014. His supposed remains were discovered in a Greek border area in the 1960s.

For context, the coffin and remains were flown on Saturday to the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, on board a military aircraft that was surrounded by air force fighter jets.

Thousands of individuals poured into a public square to honour the czar's arrival. It capped years of fraught negotiations between Bulgaria and Greece until an accord was reached this week.

Bulgarian politicians throughout the spectrum paid tribute to the medieval ruler, listening to the national anthem and a 21-gun salute.

"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, " Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev remarked.

"That is why Europe must not reopen old wounds but must work for peace as the supreme good, " Radev continued, referring to the centuries-old rivalry between neighbouring Greece and Bulgaria. Crowds cheered as fighter jets performed a flypast.

Meanwhile, a procession brought the remains to be laid in the Church of Saint Sofia, a sixth-century basilica that is the capital's namesake and where church authorities say Samuel was baptised.

Meanwhile, the handover of Samuel's remains is part of a broader accord between the Greek and Bulgarian culture ministers.

Speaking before the handover, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis remarked he hoped the ceremony would boost Greece's campaign to repatriate the Parthenon Marbles, a collection of 2, 500-year-old marble sculptures taken from the Acropolis in Athens and afterwards displayed in the British Museum.

"The global community is essentially re-evaluating its longstanding stance on protecting cultural heritage, " Mitsotakis remarked, adding that historical heirlooms "cannot be treated as the spoils of war".

Bulgaria is not the only country to have claims on Samuel. A massive statue of the czar stands in the North Macedonian capital of Skopje, with Macedonians claiming him as "their" ruler.

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 at present North Macedonia.

In short, remains of Bulgaria's Czar Samuel return 'home' after 1, 000 years is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.