site.btaOctober 23, 1982: Samuil's Fortress National Park-Museum Is Unveiled

On October 23, 1982, the Samuil's Fortress National Park-Museum was officially opened. The central figure in the architectural ensemble is the bronze monument to Tsar Samuil, created by artist Boris Gondov.

According to the official website of the Petrich History Museum, the ruler is depicted as a majestic full-length figure, but with bent knees. He is "broken not by defeat, but by the pain that will kill him, over his crippled companions." On both sides of Tsar Samuil are bas-reliefs of soldiers. [In 1014, after the Battle of Belasitsa, the Byzantine Emperor Basil II captured some 15,000 Bulgarian soldiers and had most of them blinded before sending them back home. It is believed that Tsar Samuil suffered a heart attack upon seeing them.]

Next to the monument is a museum exhibition displaying the finds from the archaeological excavations of the fortress. Among them are two marble slabs with Old Bulgarian inscriptions, jewelry, tools, arrows, and ceramics.

The archaeological site includes 40 preserved small dugouts [housing] and the so-called Big Dugout, the ruins of a watchtower, and a nature park.

The national park-museum is located 16 kilometres west of the town of Petrich (Southwestern Bulgaria), along the banks of the Strumeshna River, on the border between Bulgaria and the Republic of North Macedonia.